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Glass 

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William Mortensen 




The New 

PROJECTION 

CONTROL 


by 

William Mortensen 



CAMERA CRAFT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
425 Bush Street San Francisco, Calif. 


Copyright 1942 


\ f XloS'O 


Camera Craft Publishing Company 

San Francisco 

Third Edition 
Revised and Enlarged v 


Other Books by 

WILLIAM MORTENSEN 

Pictorial Lighting 

Monsters and Madonnas 

The Command To Look 

The Model 

Print Finishing 

Outdoor Portraiture 

Flash in Modern Photography 


RECEIVED 


JUL 2.71942 

S V 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE 


Printed in the United States of America 
by The Mercury Press, San Francisco 


G-O -p ? 



166676 




















































■ 

















, 




Contents 


Foreword .......... 12 


Chapter One —Picture Taking and Picture Making . . .14 

Control in Photography is the basis of personal expression. Selection by Con¬ 
trol. Is it “legitimate?” Groivth of projection printing. Imagination and the 
camera. The three general methods of Projection Control. 

Chapter Two —Equipment and Materials . . . .18 

Need of simple unified equipment. List of equipment and materials. Negative 
size. The enlarger. Orange filter. Printing frame and easel. Aperture board. 
Timing devices. Printing masks. Printing paper. The strength of limitation. 

Chapter Three —Negative Quality . . . . . .24 

Correct negative quality the basis of projection printing. An ancient fallacy 
and the reasons for its persistence. The ideal negative described. The four 
factors of negative quality. Lighting. Local tone. Exposure. Development. 
Recommended films and developers. Negative procedure demonstrated. The 
error of the old rule for exposure. Distribution of tones in projection nega¬ 
tive. Accents and their placement. Summary. 

Chapter Four —Basic Projection Printing . . . .38 

Technical skill is needed in projection printing. Handling the enlarger. Need 
of cleanliness. A note on diffusion. Focusing. Care of materials. Choice of 
paper. With standardized negative there is no need of a wide selection of 
papers. Development time. The fogging test. Exposure. Making the test strip. 


10 



Developing procedure. Fixing. Drying and finishing. A point of pride. Tivo 
basic technical faults: flatness and excessive contrast. The ultimate photo¬ 
graphic test. 


Chapter Five —Local Printing . . . . . .50 

The unselective camera. The scope of local printing. What the camera sees. 

A sample of procedure. The tools for local printing. Three types of local 
printing. Spot printing. Relation of spot printing to general printing. Spot 
printing for emphasis. Spot printing for elimination. Spot printing for bal¬ 
ance. Local printing by cut-outs. Dodging. Dodging to correct unbalanced 
illumination. Dodging to adjust tonal relationships with background. “Dodg¬ 
ing in” for emphasis. Dodging with cut-outs. Dodging in landscape. Vignet¬ 
ting. Vignetting combined with dodging in. The general technique of local 
printing. 

Chapter Six —Distortion ....... 86 

Art as distortion. The background of distortion. Cultures express themselves 
through their distortions. The photographic use of distortion. Methods. Sam¬ 
ples of procedure. Distortion in landscape. Everyday uses of distortion. Lat¬ 
eral distortion. Local distortion. 

Chapter Seven —Combination Printing ..... 102 

Two types of combination printing. Montage, the combination of ideas. A 
sample procedure for montage. Technical requirements. Montage in portrai¬ 
ture. Combination of literal elements. Addition of clouds. The use of cut¬ 
outs. Variations in procedure. An extreme instance of combination printing. 

Chapter Eight— It’s Up to You . . . . . .121 

The author is slightly depressed. Projection control is readily abused. Pro¬ 
jection control is not a means of covering up mistakes. A few last words. 

The author passes the buck. 

11 



Foreword 


This volume represents the fourth version of a project that first 
saw the light of day back in 1933 in the form of a brief magazine 
article dealing with a few useful tricks in projection printing. 

The unexpectedly hearty response to the original article (and its 
slightly expanded reprint in pamphlet form) revealed that many 
photographers were intensely interested in exploiting the pictorial 
possibilities of the projection print and in eluding its sometimes 
crass limitations. So in 1934, Projection Control underwent further 
growth and blossomed out in hook form. It was my first trial at 
writing a hook and was fumbling and tentative in a good many 
details. Nevertheless, because it offered some suggestions, however 
incomplete, for making more adequate and imaginative use of the 
procedure of projection printing, it enjoyed considerable circulation. 

Now, once more, Projection Control undergoes a metamorphosis. 
This new edition, however, is not a mere revision and expansion of 
the old. To all intents and purposes, it is a new book, and—I trust— 
a more useful one. 

In general, there is less emphasis on the freakish and “trick” 
uses of Projection Control, and much fuller consideration of the 
everyday applications of the procedures involved. Only incidentally 
is Projection Control a means of contriving startling pictorial effects. 
Properly understood, it is a method, of everyday usefulness, for 
making the best possible prints from your negatives. 


12 


So I have eliminated most of the material relative to “framing,” 
a subject properly pertaining to composition rather than projection 
printing. Eliminated also are most of the more freakish demonstra¬ 
tions of distortion and multiple printing. In place of these deletions, 
there is much fuller description of the various procedures, with 
special emphasis on the applications of Projection Control to ordi¬ 
nary portrait and landscape photography. 


William Mortensen. 


Laguna Beach, Calif. 
February, 1942 


13 


Chapter One 


Picture Taking and Picture Making 


From its very inception, or at least from the time that it grew 
out of the stage of being a scientific toy, the camera and its works 
have been subjected to unkind comment by the practitioners of the 
older graphic arts. “Photographic” has been converted into a term 
of reproach and has been made synonymous with the unimaginative, 
the literal, the mechanical. But both the giving of this reproach 
and the meek acceptance of its damning implications by many 
photographers fail to take account of a very important factor in 
photography— control. 

All procedures and processes concerned in photography are to 
a greater or lesser degree subject to control. At the outset, in working 
with and directing the model, there is involved control of a very 
subtle psychological sort. The lighting is likewise subject to control. 
Control of another sort is involved in setting the aperture and timing 
the exposure. In developing, the negative undergoes numerous 
chemical controls. A limited amount of personal expression is 
possible through the medium of the controls just mentioned, and 
there are many photographers who go no further, but the major 
opportunity for such expression comes through processing and con¬ 
trolled projection. The image as literally recorded on the negative 
is not a picture, scarcely even the beginning of a picture, but rather 


14 


the potentiality of many different pictures according to the artist’s 
comment on it in the process of printing and the attendant manipu¬ 
lations. Getting the image onto the negative is only taking the 
picture: in printing, one comes to making the picture. 

Selection by Control . 

The arts deal selectively with their material. The poet, the 
painter, the musician, the novelist—none of these is concerned with 
making a mere carbon copy of reality. Instead, he picks and 
chooses and selects from this crowded, meaningless world: and by 
altering, suppressing, emphasizing, he builds something that has 
unity and meaning. Such selective dealing with reality is only 
possible to the photographer if he avails himself of his medium’s 
facilities for control. 

Legitimate? 

There are some who will dispute the photographic “legitimacy” 
of most of the methods and procedures hereafter described. In 
photography, as in other departments of life, there is an inclination 
to resent the ascendancy of the illegitimate over the more regularly 
begotten. There is a considerable group of workers with the camera, 
excellent technicians, self-styled “pure photographers,” who declare 
that objective recording is the highest virtue and finest attainment 
of the camera, and who consequently eschew all controls except the 
simplest and most primitive. But the cry of “legitimacy” and 
“purity” is, in art, all too often the recourse and excuse of the 
pedantic and ineffectual. Not “Is it pure?” hut “Is it beautiful?” 
not “Is it legitimate?” hut “Does it move you?” are still the ultimate 
tests of picture, poem or symphony. 

Growth of Projection Printing. 

The present tendency of photography is toward the smaller 
camera. Most of the 8x10 war horses of not so many years ago 
have been turned out to pasture. Today a instrument is 

rated as large, while those of smaller size are growing in use and 
popularity. Increased precision of camera engineering, together 


15 


with improved emulsions and developers, have made this possible. 
The old contact print, except as a method of proofing, is becoming a 
rarity. Consequently the technique of projection printing takes on 
increased importance. 

Imagination and the Camera. 

Despite the tremendous possibilities of projection control, it is 
little practiced, much less understood, by the average pictorialist 
today. It is airily dismissed by the ignorant as “trick photography,” 
and regarded as heretical and blasphemous by the so-called purists. 
Such neglect is unfortunate, for projection control offers the pic¬ 
torialist with imagination a solution for his discontent with much 
present-day photography and its literal snap-shot ideals. 

With nearly every picture—no matter how bad—there was some¬ 
thing in the original subject that made an imaginative appeal to the 
person who took it. But this imaginative urge is, much of the time, 
betrayed by the undiscriminating and prosaic vision of the camera. 
The camera records all that it sees—and no more. The imagination, 
on the other hand, simultaneously sees much less than is there—and 
much more: much less, in that it disregards inconsequential details; 
much more, in that it emphasizes significant facts. It is rare indeed 
that the camera by itself can capture the essence of the subject as 
the photographer has seen it in his mind’s eye. Through projection 
control, however, it is possible to isolate and develop the picture 
elements that made the subject originally interesting. 

Three Methods. 

The three general types of projection control that are herein 
described and illustrated are capable of wide and diverse application. 
Through Local Printing, Distortion, and Combination Printing one 
may gain greatly increased power over pictorial material. These 
three procedures when mastered give one control over emphatic 
placement, control over contours, control over local tone and con¬ 
trast, control over expressive shapes and forms, and control over the 
dramatic association of ideas. The procedures described are not easy 
to apply, although they are simple in principle. But through mastery 


10 


of them one may greatly increase his expressive power in the photo¬ 
graphic medium. 

These three methods by no means exhaust the potentialities of 
projection control. Because of the relatively small amount of work 
being done in this new field, it is still rich in undiscovered possi¬ 
bilities of method and effect. It is to be hoped that this discussion 
of it will lead others, not only to deeper appreciation of this type of 
technique, but also to effort, by original experiment, to improve and 
extend its capacities. 


17 


Chapter Two 


Equipment and Materials 


In all procedures and processes of photography, simplicity is a 
virtue of the highest order. A clutter of equipment and a complexity 
of material bring photographers to untimely graves—and without 
any pictures to show for it. So I have made the following list of 
equipment and materials for projection control as brief and simple 
as possible. 

Projection enlarger. 

Orange filter. 

Printing frame. 

Tilting easel for frame. 

Aperture hoard. 

Black wax pencil. 

Jar of “opaque.” 

Time clock. 

Assorted masks for printing. 

Print developer. 

An ample supply of enlarging paper. 

Other equipment incidental to normal finishing. 

The negative for use in projection control should not he too 
large. The largest convenient size is 4x5. A negative 2^x3% or 
3*4x4% is easiest to work with. Contax, Leica, and other 35 mm. 


18 


negatives lend themselves admirably to the various processes of 
projection control, although demanding greater skill and more 
critical care in manipulation than those of somewhat larger size. 

The Enlarger . 

For use with medium sized negatives, the horizontal type of 
enlarger with nine inch condensers and a 400-watt bulb is found to 
be the most flexible sort of projection apparatus, lending itself 
readily to all the methods of control. My personal preference is for 
the old Thornton-Pickard machine, which is of English manufacture 
and embodies condensers of a type developed for use in aerial 
photography. A good lens of about 8 inch focal length (such as a 
Carl Zeiss or a Goerz Dagor) is essential. Such a projection outfit as 
this is not easy to find, but it is worth looking for. 

For 35 mm. and other small negatives, a vertical type of enlarger 
with a lens of short focal length is preferable, as the conventional 
horizontal machine requires excessive space to step the small nega¬ 
tives up to an 11x14 area. Until recently, the only truly high 
precision enlargers adapted to the small negative were those manu¬ 
factured by the makers of Leica and Contax. The “Precision” 
enlarger, lately put on the market by Eastman, is a very fine instru¬ 
ment, made extremely flexible by readily interchangeable lenses and 
condensers. The Simmons “Omegas” and the Burke and James 
“Solars” are also quite satisfactory. 

All procedures of projection control are equally applicable to 
either the vertical or horizontal type of machine. 

Although more critical in handling, the condenser type of enlarger 
is generally to be preferred to one of the diffusion type. A well- 
designed diffusion enlarger (such, for example, as the Elwood 
machine) is capable of good work, but is apt to heat up unduly. 

Orange Filter. 

In order to check on the progress of various projection control 
procedures, it is necessary to have an orange filter to protect the 
bromide paper against unintentional exposure. Such a filter is part 


19 



Figure 1. Printing frame tilted for elongation. 


of the “standard equipment” of most modern enlargers. The filter 
should he so rigged that it may be quickly and easily operated. 

Printing Frame and Easel. 

The printing frame should not be smaller than 11x14. Most of 
the procedures of projection control are more readily accomplished 
with prints of generous size. It is important that the glass be flawless. 
An “optical” glass of such size is expensive, but is much to be pre¬ 
ferred if you can afford it. The frame should be so mounted that it 
may be tilted forward at least fifteen degrees (as in Figure 1), with 
several intermediate adjustments. It is also useful to have the frame 
capable of rotation about a vertical axis, although this adjustment is 
seldom called for. 

With a vertical type of enlarger, tilting adjustments are generally 
made in an impromptu fashion by propping up one edge of the 
frame with a book. However, the Eastman “Precision” enlarger has 


20 



Figure 2. Enlarger tilted for 
enlongation. 


Figure 3. Aperture board 
used with horizontal 
enlarger. 


Figure 4. Fingers control • 
ling opening in aperture 
board. 


taken care of these matters by permitting the machine itself to he 
tilted. (See Figure 2.) 

Aperture Board. 

An important accessory for local printing is the “aperture board.” 
This device is easily made. Basically it consists simply of a piece of 
stiff black cardboard, about 12x14 inches, in which is cut a circular 
hole about an inch and a quarter in diameter, two inches above the 
center and two inches to one side of the center. The diameter of the 
opening may he altered to meet individual needs: it should be of 
such size as to readily admit the first two fingers of the left hand. 
This accessory is shown in use in Figures 3 and 4. 

The home-made device described above is entirely adequate for 
the use to which it is put. But if you prefer something a little more 
dressy and tailor-made, there are several fancy versions of the 
“aperture board” on the market. One type offers you, by twirling a 
disc, a selection of holes, of various shapes and sizes. Another con¬ 
sists of a sort of iris diaphragm which may he manipulated into all 
manner of wierd contours. Either of these is almost as good as the 
simple piece of cardboard with the hole in it. 


21 







T inter. 

It is frequently desirable, in projection control, to match the tone 
of separately printed areas. To do this accurately, some sort of timing 
device is required. The traditional procedure of counting chim¬ 
panzees is scarcely accurate enough for this purpose. In the absence 
of more ostentatious equipment, an ordinary, loud-ticking alarm 
clock will serve excellently. The conventional alarm clock is built 
so that it ticks four times a second. All that is necessary to keep 
accurate track of time is to listen to the clock, mentally accentuating 
every fourth tick, thus: 

TICK tick tick tick TICK tick tick tick TICK tick tick tick, etc. 

Guided by this pattern, you can then count your chimpanzees 
with complete accuracy: 

NO chim-pan-zee ONE chim-pan-zee TWO . . . etc. 

If you do a great deal of printing, however, you will probably find 
it worth while to invest in an automatic timer. There are a number 
of devices on the market, not too expensive, designed to turn off the 
enlarger light at any pre-set time from one to sixty seconds. 

Printing Masks. 

For fitting compositions of varying sizes and proportions into the 
11x14 shape it is necessary to have a considerable number of printing 
masks of sundry proportions and sizes, varying from a square to a 
panel. The following set of eight openings would be ample to meet 
most needs: 


10x10 

10x13 

10x11% 

9%xl3 

10x12 

9x13 

10x12% 

8%xl3 


The masks are made of light-weight bristol board, the openings 
being meticulously cut with straight-edge and razor blade. Any rough 
edges, or other carelessness in cutting, become very evident when the 
print is made. 

To guard against stray reflections, it is a good idea to blacken the 
inner edge of the cut-out with ink. 


22 


Printing Paper. 

When I stipulate an “ample supply” of paper, I mean ample. 
You must be prepared to have most of your prints achieve an 
ignominious end in the waste basket while you are learning these 
methods. Indeed, if you are reasonably self-critical, you will prob¬ 
ably throw all of them away for quite awhile. A bromide or chloro- 
bromide of medium weight is preferable, such as Defender “Velour 
Black I,” Eastman “Opal,” or Agfa “Brovira.” For the methods 
outlined hereafter, a “normal” paper will serve in most cases. There 
is occasional use for “soft” paper, never any for “hard.” 

The Strength of Limitation. 

One of the commonest characteristics of the photographic ama¬ 
teur, and one of his worst faults, is his fickleness. Instead of trying to 
master a unified scheme of equipment and materials, he needs must 
try everything once, and so embarks on an interminable series of 
experiments that cost money, waste time, and prove nothing. Pos¬ 
sibly he amuses himself extremely, but beyond that his accomplish¬ 
ment is nil. Far better for him if he would at the outset get the best 
equipment he can afford and the least he can get along with, and 
solemnly resolve to limit himself to one kind of film, one kind of 
paper, and one kind of developer. The uncertainties and variable 
factors in photography are all too numerous as it is without exercising 
unholy ingenuity in inventing fresh ones. 


23 


Chapter Three 


Negative Quality 


Before there can be a print, there must be a negative. This is so 
obvious a fact that it should seem superfluous to mention it. But the 
implications of the fact are blithely ignored by many camera workers 
who try to make prints with any sort of negatives, exposed by guess 
and developed by the grace of God. 

Nothing is more essential to good photography than correct nega¬ 
tive quality. And about nothing is there more misunderstanding and 
wrong teaching. Photographers are still hag-ridden by that ancient 
fallacy “Expose for the shadows and let the high lights take care of 
themselves”—a fallacy going back to the Stone Age of photography 
when the main idea was to be sure of getting an image on the plate. 
This fallacy has been fostered and brought down to date by manu¬ 
facturers anxious to ensure the users of their materials getting a 
picture of some sort—even though the negative looks like a dark day 
in a coal mine. Favorites of this cult of overexposure are those 
physics of ailing negatives—reducers and intensifies. The inevitable 
running mate of overexposure is underdevelopment, an equally 
pernicious photographic habit which is largely encouraged nowadays 
by the wholesale methods of commercial workers. The requirements 
for negative quality that I shall set forth are not easy to meet, as 
there are many degrees of overexposure and only one of correct 


24 


exposure. But for projection printing and all the procedures of pro¬ 
jection control a negative of correct quality is an absolute necessity. 

The Negative for Projection. 

It is important at the outset to learn to recognize and distinguish 
such a negative. It should be brilliant, and by conventional stand¬ 
ards slightly thin, ranging from complete transparency in the 
deepest shadow through a long scale of half-tones to dense black in 
the extreme high lights. Such a negative when examined carefully 
by holding it in front of an illuminated sheet of white paper shows 
two main divisions of tonal quality: 

1. A relatively dense area. 

2. A translucent area. 

The denser area (which represents, of course, the lighter portions of 
the print) is at no point completely opaque or black save at one or 
two small spots which correspond to the most intense high lights of 
the original image. Throughout the translucent area (representing 
the darker passages of the print) there is a suggestion of drawing and 
a faint tone over it all, except in a few small accents (representing 
the “deepest darks”), which are clear and transparent as glass. 
Finally, there is, between these two dominating areas of tone, a con¬ 
siderable and clearly distinguishable range of half-tones. Such a 
negative, if held between a light globe and a white sheet of paper, 
will, even at a distance of six or eight inches, cast a clear image 
of itself. 

Negatives of this peculiar type of brilliance are not to be obtained 
by conventional photographic practice. Indeed, the procedure which 
is herein advocated runs counter to many accepted ideas on exposure 
and development. 

Four Factors . 

There are four factors that determine the quality of a negative. 
Control of these factors will ensure a negative of proper quality for 
projection. 


25 


Two of these factors relate to characteristics of the subject matter 
itself. These are: 

1. Lighting. 

2. Local tone. 

The importance of these two factors in determining negative quality 
is not generally recognized. 

The other two factors relate to procedures directly affecting the 
negative: 

3. Exposure 

4. Development. 

These are, of course, the traditional factors in negative processing. 
But the traditional understanding of these two factors (based pri¬ 
marily on contact printing) does not lead to the best results in 
producing a negative for projection. 

Lighting and Local Tone. 

For good negative quality, it is important that the subject matter 
itself should be of relatively low contrast. In the first place, the 
subject matter should contain no large areas of contrasty local tone. 
In the second place, it should have no extreme contrast imposed upon 
it by lighting. 

What do we mean by “local tone”? Unless you are photographing 
a plaster cast, different parts of your subject matter are differently 
colored. For example, your model has light brown hair, blue eyes, a 
medium complexion, and a green dress. These various colors are 
translated by the camera into different local tones of gray. 

Now, any subject matter that puts into opposition large areas of 
the extremes of local tone will not yield a good negative. Such subject 
matter, for example, would he a model with a pale complexion and 
a large mass of black hair. If you tried to get detail in the face, the 
hair would be empty of detail. On the other hand, detail in the hair 
could be secured only by sacrificing it in the face. 

Photography is at its best in exploiting the gradation of the 
medium half-tones. Good subject matter, therefore, will furnish 
plenty of these. The extremes of local tone may he present, but they 


26 


should appear only in very small areas. (The nature and placement 
of these “accents” will be explained presently.) 

By means of lighting, various degrees of contrast may be imposed 
on subject matter. Even subject matter with little variation in local 
tone may be made extremely contrasty through wrong lighting. (See 
Figure 7.) For the best quality in negatives for projection, avoid 
heavy contrasts in lighting. 

In another book* I have described a method of lighting which 
secures effective illumination of low contrast. In terms of the Weston 
exposure meter, the ratio between the shadow and light area of the 
face in a portrait should not exceed 1:4. If the reading for the 
shadow area is 6.5, for example, the light area should not read more 
than 25. And if the light area reads 13, the shadows should not fall 
below 3.2.** 

Exposure and Development. 

A great deal of photographic procedure has been (and still is) 
based on: 

1. An exposure ample enough to be sure of getting an image. 

2. A development brief enough to avoid blocking up the 
amply exposed image. 

Now, as a sort of rough-and-ready way of getting an image every time 
you shoot, this method has its points. It is, for this reason, the pro¬ 
cedure generally advocated to the supposedly uncritical amateur by 
manufacturers of photographic materials. But this method is incapa¬ 
ble of producing a projection negative of good quality. 

This method is euphemistically called “exposing for the shad¬ 
ows.” Photographers who thus “expose for the shadows” are obliged 
to jerk their negatives prematurely from the developer in order to 
prevent the light area from blocking up completely. By so doing they 
cheat themselves of some of the detail in the very shadows that they 
exposed for. As to the light area, they get something that is printable, 

* Pictorial Lighting, Camera Craft, 1935. 

** For more about this ratio of shadow area to light area (the “S:L ratio”), see “Flash in Modern 
Photography” (Camera Craft, 1941), Part II, Chapter Three. 


27 



but starved for half-tones. When once the half-tones have merged 
themselves with the high lights, they are joined for good, and no 
amount of hocus-pocus with underdevelopment or reducers can ever 
take them apart again. 

Instead, for the best quality for projection, negative procedure 
should be based on 

1. An exposure compatible with the light area of image. 

2. The fullest possible development. 

1. It is entirely logical that exposure should he based on the 
light area of the image.* It is in this area that the principal interest 
lies in at least 99.9% of all photographs; so it is only reasonable 
that this area should be made to furnish the fullest possible photo¬ 
graphic reward to the eye in the way of gradation and half-tones. 
In practical terms, “exposure based on the light area” means an 
exposure slightly less than normal. Very definitely, it does not 
mean underexposure. 

2. For best quality, a negative so exposed should be left in the 
developer until development is complete—or until, in the jargon of 
the technicians, development has reached “gamma infinity.” A neg¬ 
ative that has been correctly exposed for the light area cannot be 
overdeveloped. Up to the moment that fogging begins there is the 
possibility of the development of latent detail. 

This extended development may range from three-quarters of 
an hour to an hour and a half (or even longer) in a developer of 
reduced alkalinity. The combination of clipped exposure and ex¬ 
tended development takes advantage of the period of “tolerance” 
(which in most modern emulsions is considerable) between the 
attainment of gamma infinity and the incipience of fog. With a 
properly timed exposure there is a period of at least half an hour 
during which—for all practical purposes—absolutely nothing “hap¬ 
pens” in the emulsion after the completion of development. Develop- 
men may be complete in fifteen minutes, in twenty minutes, or in 

* Note that we say “light area,” NOT high lights. High lights are the few brilliant points of 
extreme illumination, found usually on the tip of the nose, the chin, the catch lights in the eyes, etc. 
These high lights register as opaque spots on the correctly exposed negative. 


28 



three quarters of an hour; hut by generously prolonging the develop¬ 
ment time, you protect yourself against variations in emulsions, 
slight variations in exposure, and variations in the strength of the 
developer. 

It should be noted that some emulsions (particularly the ultra¬ 
sensitive type) will not stand up to extended development. There 
are some developers also (particularly those heavy in alkali) that 
should not be so used. Here are a few films and developers that may 
be safely recommended under these conditions. 

Films: 

Agfa Plenachrome and Finopan 
Dupont Superior 
Defender Portrait 
Eastman Verichrome 
Developers: 

Borax-Metol 
Agfa D-6 
Glycin 

It should be emphasized that the last two factors of this type 
of procedure—clipped exposure and extended development—are 
based on strict adherence to the first two—restricted contrast of 
lighting and local tone. Any attempt to apply this sort of exposure 
and development to contrasty lighting or subject matter will result 
in disaster. 

A Sample of Procedure. 

All theories of exposure represent an effort to fit the restricted 
range of half-tones of the negative to the range of tones afforded 
by the subject. Since the negative range is nearly always much 
shorter than the object range, it is obvious that some sort of com¬ 
promise must be made, as it is impossible with the average subject 
involving local colour to record simultaneously on the same nega¬ 
tive the full range of half-tones in the light area and complete detail 
in the shadows. By basing exposure on the light area, the full range 
of half-tones in this part of the image is reproduced on the negative 
with only the extreme high lights attaining full blackness. Figure 5 


29 



is a straight print from a negative obtained under such conditions. 
This print immediately impresses one with its tangible, three dimen¬ 
sional quality. Note the nice distinction in local colour between the 
whites of the eyes and the light area of the flesh. Note also the range 
of delicate half-tones in the light area. The few high lights are crisp 
and brilliant, and the shadows rich and illusive. The quality of the 
blacks is substantial and velvety. 

The older compromise, that of exposing for the shadows, repre¬ 
sents an effort to get on to the negative everything recordable in the 
subject. But note what happens when a negative is exposed for the 
shadow area: while you are waiting for the small amount of light 
from the shadows to record itself, things are going wrong in the light 
area. The extreme high lights build up to black first of all, and, 
because they cannot get blacker than their ultimate black, they re- 


30 




Figure 6. 

Exposed for the g 
shadows; 

balanced lighting. yj| ‘ 4 ^ | | j 

main there while all the adjacent half-tones catch up and merge 
themselves with the high lights. A print from such a negative shows 
fine detail in the shadows, and a bleak light area bereft of all detail 
or gradation. Figure 6 shows the result of exposing for the shadows: 
the lighting is identical with that of Figure 5. Comparing Figure 6 
with Figure 5 it is immediately evident that the modelling of the 
face has been destroyed so that it looks flat and on one plane. The 
distinction of local colour between the whites of the eyes and the 
flesh tones has been lost. The gradation of half-tones in the light 
area has been wiped out completely. There are no crisp high lights, 
and no rich blacks. The shadows are filled with wiry unpleasant 
detail. Compared with the rendition in Figure 5 the hair in Figure 
6 looks meager and mousy. 

A comparison of these two prints should make it evident that, 


31 



Figure 7. 

Exposed for the 
light area; 

“modelling light” 
with reflector. 


aside from photographic advantages, there are very definite pictorial 
and psychological justifications for exposing for the light area. It 
is to this part of the picture that the eye goes first in search of sub¬ 
jective or thematic interest. Hence this part should reward the 
questing eye with fine detail, delicate gradation and subtle model¬ 
ling—the qualities which constitute photography’s unique contribu¬ 
tion to pictorial art. In the shadows, on the other hand, illusion 
should prevail, and too much literal detail there is a distraction and 
an annoyance. 

It must always be borne in mind that this procedure is postulated 
on lighting and local tone of low contrast. Figure 5, for instance, is 
a typical example of the so-called Basic Light.* 

* Pictorial Lighting, Chapter Three. 


32 




A contrasty lighting, or the typical studio “modelling light” with 
reflector, results, when one exposes for the light area, in complete 
loss of the shadow area. Figure 7 is a fair example of what happens 
when one attempts to combine this method of exposure with the 
“modelling light.” The exposure in this case was the same as that 
used in Figure 5. Note that the shadow area is completely blacked 
out, although ample detail was evident to the eye at the time of 
taking the picture. Observe, however, that in the light half of the 
face, on which the exposure was based, there is just as fine grada¬ 
tion and modelling as in Figure 5. Obviously, this method of ex¬ 
posure cannot be applied to pictures taken in direct sunlight, which 
is contrasty in the extreme. But in the shade, or under a cloudy sky, 
one may successfully base exposure on the light area. 

In Figure 8 is demonstrated the conventional portrait procedure, 


33 







which seeks to secure a three dimensional effect through the use of 
a “modelling light” instead of through delicate gradation of half¬ 
tones. The lighting is the same as in Figure 7, with exposure based 
on the shadow area. Notice that the light area is blasted and burnt 
out just as it was in Figure 6. Only in the shadow area does any 
modelling survive. 

No effort has been made to exaggerate the differences between 
these four prints. They received identical treatment in the dark¬ 
room. All four were printed for the same length of time on the 
same kind of paper, and were developed for the same period in the 
same developer. 

Appearance of Negative. 

Aside from procedure, how may we recognize this paragon 
of negatives? We have already, in a general way, indicated the 
appearance of a projection negative. Let us now note more particu¬ 
larly its rendition of half-tones. 

Check prospective projection negatives in front of an illuminated 
white background. Note carefully the relative areas occupied by 
the different half-tones. The diagrams in Figure 9 will be of help in 
placing the quality of the negative. Figure 9A shows an all-too-fami- 
liar type of tone distribution. It is characteristic of most record 
shots and of all attempts to deal with contrasty subject matter or 
lighting. Note that most of the area is given over to the extremes of 
the tonal scale, and that such gradation as remains is crowded into 
a small and restricted area. Such a negative as this is altogether 
hopeless for projection. 

Figure 9B shows the tonal distribution of the so-called “brilliant” 
negative. Here more opportunity is given to display the gradations 
of the middle tones, but the extreme tones still occupy too large an 
area. This type of negative has some pictorial uses, but is not the 
best for projection control. The relatively large area occupied by 
the extreme tones reveals that the accents of intense light and 
shadows are to a considerable extent lost in the surrounding area. 
Note also that in types A and B the lightest area is somewhat veiled 


34 



A 


B 


C 


Figure 9. Three types of tone distribution in a negative. 


over: this means that the extreme range of tone represented by clear 
glass is not taken advantage of, thus losing accent blacks in the print. 

In Figure 9C is shown the tonal distribution that should be 
sought for in a projection negative. Here we have the fullest possible 
extension of the range of the middle tones. A small amount of dense 
black remains as the high-light accents. And there is the added range 
of clear glass (in the shadow accents). 

Accents and Their Placement . 

These “accents” in a good projection negative are small and crisp. 
The high-light accents represent complete, or nearly complete, re¬ 
flection of the illumination. They occur naturally at the points on 
curved surfaces nearest the light source. The shadow accents, on the 
other hand, represent the portions of the image at which there is 
complete, or nearly complete, absorption of the light. They are fre¬ 
quently adjacent and complementary to corresponding high lights. 

In a negative of the quality shown in Figure 9C, a face illumi¬ 
nated by the Basic Light (as in Figure 5) would probably show 
these accents at the following points: 

High-light accents— 

The eyeball (one accent in each eye). 

The teeth. 


35 


The finger nails. 

Jewelry. 

Highest sheen of blond hair. 

Portions of rounded flesh nearest source of illumination. 

Shadow accents— 

Pupil of eye. 

In cornea immediately below upper lid. 

Spots in nostrils. 

Upper corners of upper lip. 

Small openings between strands of hair. 

Other small clean shadows throughout image. 

The customary position of these accents is shown in diagram¬ 
matic fashion in Figures 10 and 11. In order to show the accents 
clearly, their effect is of course greatly exaggerated. 

A projection negative of the quality shown in Figure 9C gives, 
with effective placement of these accents, an effect of vitality, crisp¬ 
ness and sparkle that cannot otherwise be obtained in photography. 
The precious elements of black and white, instead of being squan¬ 
dered in huge empty shadows and in bleak expanses of overex¬ 
posure, become bits of condiment that lend zest to the whole.* 

Other Negative Requirements. 

Correct quality is, of course, the primary requisite of negatives 
for projection. However, there are a few other attributes advisable 
in a negative that is to be subjected to projection control. These may 
he listed briefly. 

1. The negative should be small . . . Any size larger than 
4x5 is difficult to handle. 

2. The principal object in the negative should be fairly well 
centered, with ample neutral space on all sides. This 
arrangement allows for adjustment and manipulation. 

3. If the negative is to be used for combination printing, the 
background should be opaque. That is, a Semi-Silhouette 

* For additional discussion of negative quality and of exposure and development practice, see 
Pictorial Lighting (Camera Craft) and Mortensen on the Negative (Simon and Schuster). 


36 




Figure 10. Placement of high-light accents. Figure 11. Placement of shadow accents. 


Light should have heen used in photographing the sub¬ 
ject. 


Summary . 

This discussion of negative quality has covered a good deal of 
ground. Let me summarize the principal points: 

1. The subject matter should be of low contrast, both in 
lighting and in local tone. 

2. The negative should receive an exposure compatible with 
the range of half-tones in the light-area of the image 
proper. 

3. It should be given an extended development, ranging 
from three quarters of an hour to an hour and a half in 
a developer of reduced alkalinity. 

4. The negative should be translucent and brilliant, never 
heavy. 

5. It should contain a full range of half-tones. 

6. It should contain a few definitely marked accents of full 
black and complete transparency. 


37 






Chapter Four 


Basic Projection Printing 


The modern trend toward the smaller camera gives increased 
importance to the technique of projection printing. This technique 
is learned by the n^ajority of photographers, as I myself learned it, 
by bitter experience: only by much wasteful fumbling do they find 
their way to clean, certain and expeditious methods. While an 
awkward period is inevitable in the learning of any technique, be 
it playing the piano or digging post holes, this period can be much 
shortened and much precious time and material saved by starting 
right. The amateur should as early as possible devote himself to 
acquiring manual skill and strive to reduce his dark-room proce¬ 
dure to a ritualized routine. 

Even supposedly advanced students of photography that I have 
met have had difficulty with simple projection printing. And until 
one is capable of making a good clean bromide print, it is perfectly 
futile to talk of projection control. Hence this chapter. 

Handling the Enlarger. 

We have already mentioned the necessity of a really good enlarger 
—preferably of the condenser type. But like a good camera, or a 
good horse, the good enlarger requires careful handling. The con¬ 
denser type of machine is much more critical and sensitive than any 
other. Every flaw, every finger mark, every wandering speck of dust 
is meticulously recorded, and nothing but arduous “spotting” can 


38 



“ Balkan ” 


Williarn Mortensen 


39 








make good the carelessness that let them be there. 

There are two ways of allowing for focusing adjustments on 
a horizontal projector. One way, which is probably the commoner, 
provides for the movement of the focusing board while the pro¬ 
jector remains stationary. The other method has the focusing board 
fixed, except for tilting adjustments, while the projector slides to 
and fro. The latter solution is the one that I prefer. The slightly 
greater effort needed to move the heavy projector is offset by several 
advantages. All the focusing adjustments are made with the machine, 
instead of being divided between the machine and the board. The 
latter arrangement also obviates the considerable danger of spoiling 
the focus in removing or replacing the printing frame. 

Before printing, make sure that all glasses are immaculately 
clean—the printing frame, the negative carrier, the projector lens, 
and the condensers. Watch especially for specks of dust or lint 
on the condensers, for such specks will cost you many tedious 
hours of “spotting.” The negative, likewise, should be carefully 
dusted and examined for finger marks. These, if found, should be 
removed with a little alcohol on a wad of cotton. In projectors 
of the horizontal type there is danger of the lamp being displaced 
from the center of its housing. If this happens it produces an 
unequal distribution of light. Check for this frequently by closing 
the lens down to its last stop, when any unevenness of illumination 
may be clearly detected. 

A Note on Diffusion. 

If you are the owner of any diffusion discs, please dust them 
carefully and drop them in the nearest sewer. Any occasional prob¬ 
lems that may arise with wiry negatives can be met with slight 
adjustments of focus. But habitually to debauch good clean nega¬ 
tives into an accumulation of wooly blotches is the worst of photo¬ 
graphic crimes, and any one who indulges in it may justly be sus¬ 
pected of having concurrent talents for rape and mayhem. 

Focusing. 

Focus the enlarger always with the lens wide open. Determine 


40 


the sharpness of the focus by watching some small detail (in portraits 
the high light in the eye is usually chosen) near the center of the 
picture. If you can find no such crisply defined detail, you may be 
reasonably certain that your negative is not worth printing. 

When the focus is as sharp as you can possibly get it, close down 
the lens aperture by at least two stops. This serves to eliminate any 
remaining discrepancy in focus, such, for example, as might be 
caused by slight buckling of the negative in the carrier. If any 
considerable amount of projection control is to be used, however, 
the aperture should be closed down almost all the way. By this 
means the printing operation is slowed down so that manipulations 
may he carried out in a reasonably deliberate manner. 

Working at such reduced apertures stresses the need for cleanli¬ 
ness, since under these conditions every speck or smudge on the 
condensers is brought into sharp definition. 

Care of Materials. 

The same sort of cleanliness and care must he observed in han¬ 
dling materials. Developing trays should be stored away from dust 
and be well rinsed both before and after using. Decent cleanliness 
in storing and handling chemicals is much more important than 
picayunish accuracy in measuring and weighing them. 

Use fresh developer every time you print. It is the poorest of 
economies to try to make yesterday’s developer do for today. And 
check the hypo frequently. Of all photographic chemicals, hypo is 
the cheapest. What ever you may save by nursing along last month’s 
hypo, you pay for ten times over in spoiled or inferior prints. 

Choice of Paper. 

Photographers who try to make prints from all sorts of negatives 
of all types of subject matter are compelled to pay a great deal of 
attention to fitting the scale of the printing paper to the scale of the 
negative. Thus a short scale (or “flat”) negative requires a short 
scale (or “contrast”) paper in order to secure the best rendition of 
all half-tones. And a long scale (or contrasty) negative calls for a 


41 


long scale (or “soft”) paper. In order to deal satisfactorily with 
negatives of all types, one needs to have on hand paper of at least 
three degrees of contrast, and preferably four or five. 

However, if you can depend on getting a negative of fairly uni¬ 
form characteristics, most of this complication may be eliminated. 
The procedure outlined in the preceding chapter, if carefully car¬ 
ried out, will yield such a negative. If this procedure is followed 
in all details, you need to have only two grades of paper—normal 
and soft. Most of the time, in fact, you will need only normal. 

I have elsewhere* discussed the matter of paper surfaces. If you 
are genuinely interested in pictures for their own sake, you will not 
be seriously tempted by such non-pictorial issues as conspicuous 
surfaces and exotic colors. 

A choice of the following papers is suggested: 

Brovira 7051 (soft) 

Cykora 2 (normal) 

Defender I 2 (normal) 

Defender D 2 (normal) 

Kodalure G (normal) 

Agfa or Eastman Projection Proof (normal) 

It is a good idea to use the Projection Proof, whenever possible, 
for tests and experiments, particularly while you are learning print¬ 
ing procedures. It is substantially cheaper than the other papers. 

Development Time . 

It may seem illogical to discuss development before exposure, 
but it really is not. Exposure must be based on pre-determined cor¬ 
rect development. 

The emulsion on paper is thin, considerably thinner than the 
emulsion on film. Complete development is therefore required. 
Every print must he developed to “gamma infinity.” Up to the 
point that fogging sets in, a print is capable of picking up more 
half-tones, more pungent blacks in the accents. 

* Print Finishing, Part One, Chapter One. 


42 




“Girl with Cape” . William Monetise,, 


43 




This gives us a lead on determining the proper development 
time for a printing paper. We want to develop the paper fully, and 
yet stop comfortably short of fogging. For practical purposes, we 
may say that the proper development time for a paper is four-fifths 
of the fogging time. 

We may thus determine the proper developing time for any 
given paper in any given developer: Put a scrap of the paper into 
the developer and note how long it takes to fog. Four-fifths of this 
time will be the indicated developing time—for that paper in that 
developer. Shield it from the safe-light during the test, so as to ex¬ 
clude the possibility of light fog. Take your time from the first per¬ 
ceptible trace of gray in the emulsion. This will be a very pale tint, 
and in order to detect it under the safe-light, it will be necessary to 
bend the paper hack and compare the color of the emulsion with 
that of the wrong side of the paper. 

If the paper fogs in five minutes, the indicated developing time 
is four minutes. If it holds out for ten minutes before fogging, the 
development time is eight minutes. In all cases, the development 
time thus determined will be considerably longer than the time 
generally advocated by the manufacturer. The manufacturer’s 
recommendations are usually based on commercial rather than pic¬ 
torial needs, and are concerned with turning out snappy prints in 
the shortest possible time. Conventional recommendations for 
papers generally run from one and a half to three minutes develop¬ 
ing time. Four to eight minutes is the usual time indicated by the 
fogging test. 

Exposure. 

We have established, by means of the fogging test, the time that 
will give the paper the maximum development. Now we must deter¬ 
mine the exposure that will permit of such development. Obviously, 
in view of the extended development, this exposure will he some¬ 
what shorter than that usually given. 

There are, on the market, numerous ingenious meters for deter¬ 
mining negative contrasts and print exposures. However, a good 


44 


many people who have tried these devices have gone back to the 
old-fashioned test strip as being on the whole more convenient and 
fully as accurate. A test strip, used consistently and intelligently, 
will tell you all that you need know about your negative quality and 
print exposure. 

Making the Test Strip. 

The test strip should be made, of course, with the image focussed 
to the same size, and with the lens closed down to the same aperture, 
that you propose to use in making your final print. Put the strip— 
which, for an 11x14 print, should not be less than an inch and a 
half wide—in the printing frame and so adjust it that the test is 
made of both the light and dark areas of the object of principal 
interest. In a portrait, this object would, of course, be the face. 

For consistent results, the successive exposures given the strip 
should constitute a geometric series.* Under these conditions, there 
is equal separation between successive exposures. The following 
series is suggested as a useful one for test strips: 

4, 6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. 

It will be noted that in this series the time doubles with every other 
exposure. 

Have your loud ticking alarm clock or other timing device ready. 
Before you start, cover the near end of the strip with a card so that 
you will have an unexposed area for comparison. Now turn on your 
light and start counting. At the count of “4”, move the card up 
about half an inch. Move it again at 6, at 8, at 11, and so on. 

When you have completed the 64 second exposure, turn off the 
light and develop the strip. Give the full development as indicated 
by the fogging test. After the strip is developed and fixed, examine 
it carefully and determine which area gives the best rendition of 
values and the fullest half-tones. The time for this area is, of course, 
the proper exposure for the print.** 

* “Geometric” as distinguished from “arithmetic.” A typical arithmetic series would be 8, 12, 16, 
20, 24 ... . 48, 52, 56, etc., in which each exposure is four seconds longer than its predecessor. This 
would produce wide separation between the short exposures, and practically none between the longer 
ones. 

** The labor of making test strips may be considerably reduced by the use of a “step wedge” of 
some sort. A special form of step wedge is furnished in the Eastman “projection print scale.” Before 
you rely on it, a step wedge should be checked by careful comparison with regularly made test strips. 


45 



If there is any question of choice between two or three different 
exposures, make a second test covering this particular ground with 
a more closely spaced sequence of exposures. Pick the necessary 
sequence from the following series: 

8 , 914 , 11, 13, 16, 19, 22, 26, 32, 38, 45, 52, 64. 

In this series the time doubles with every fourth exposure. 

For purposes of projection control, the exposure should not be 
too short, since deliberation is needed for the various manipulations. 
If the indicated exposure is any shorter than 16 seconds, use a smal¬ 
ler aperture. If the smallest available aperture still gives too short 
an exposure, it will be necessary to use increased enlargement or else 
install a less powerful lamp in the projector. 

Your final print, of course, should be exposed and developed 
according to findings of the tests. These tests may seem unduly 
tedious, but they will ensure you good and consistent results. In¬ 
creasing experience will enable you to abbreviate the tests. Two or 
three trials will clearly indicate the developing time, so that you 
will not need to run another fogging test unless you change your 
paper or developer. Experience will also enable you to judge the 
exposure within a fairly close range. Then your test strip will need 
to cover only this range. 

Developing Procedure. 

In putting the exposed print into the developing tray, slide it into 
the solution edgeways. This movement automatically clears the 
emulsion of ai#% bubbles. Never put the whole hand into the 
developer. If the print is clipped pincer-wise between the first two 
fingers of the right hand it is never necessary to dampen more than 
the tips of these two fingers. The developing tray must never be 
placed directly under the safe light, as extended development under 
these conditions will undoubtedly produce light fog. The immi¬ 
nence of fogging is detected by turning back a corner of the print 
and comparing the tone of the plain side of the paper with that of 
the unexposed margin of the emulsion. If the latter shows the 
slightest tincture of grayness, the print should he pulled imme¬ 
diately. 


46 


Fixing. 

Before going into the hypo the print should he briefly rinsed in 
an acid short stop bath* If many prints are being made, this rinsing 
is necessary to prevent rapid depletion of the hypo; but it is advis¬ 
able in all cases, as hypo tends to flatten the half-tones of a print 
that is not cleared of surface developer. Residual developer is also 
apt to produce yellow to brown stains on the print. After the print 
is in the hypo, resist for five minutes the temptation to turn up the 
lights and examine it. Even when a print appears well fixed, it is 
still susceptible to fog and loss of contrast. Let it remain in the hypo 
for twenty minutes and then rinse in running water for one hour. 

Drying and Finishing. 

Before drying the print, swab it carefully with a soft, clean cloth. 
Some meticulous operators have recommended drying frames cov¬ 
ered with linen. I believe that this is an unnecessary refinement, as 
I have for many years without mishap dried my prints on frames 
covered with galvanized chicken wire. Before it is bone dry a print 
should be straight-edged and pressed.** 

Now we come to a point that touches on personal and profes¬ 
sional pride. No print is fit to appear in society until it has been 
dried, straight-edged, pressed, spotted, trimmed and mounted. And 
yet we encounter amateurs and occasional professionals with so 
little sense of decency that they will exhibit, to public or friends, 
blotchy prints with curled corners and ruffled edges. A photographer 
should no more think of making such a disillusioning display than 
an actress would think of showing her public what she looks like 
when she wakes up in the morning. 

The Two Basic Faults. 

In the last twenty years I have seen a lot of photographs made 
by students. From examining their work, I have concluded that, in 

* Since acetic acid is no longer generally available the following substitutes may be used in the 
proportions indicated: 2 ounces of citric acid to 1 gallon of water; or 4 ounces of Sodium Bisulfite to 
1 gallon of water; or one part of 45 grain white vinegar to two parts of water. For a detailed 
discussion of this matter see American Photography for April 1942. 

** Full detail on these procedures will be found in Print Finishing, Camera Craft, 1938. 


47 



prints, there are just two technical faults that are really fundamental: 
flatness and extreme contrast. 

Oddly enough, the students as a rule paid little attention to these 
faults but were greatly distressed by lesser failings. “What makes 
that stain?” said they, “Why am I not in focus?” or “What causes 
those white specks?” These are things of small account, relatively, 
and may be corrected by a little tactful instruction in common care 
and cleanliness; but the faults are fundamental and their causes are 
often hard to arrive at. 

There are several possible causes for both these faults. It is 
important to know them all. 

A flat, grimy, grey print may be caused by— 

1 . A negative that has been overexposed and subsequently 
under or overdeveloped. 

2 . Old or inferior film. 

3. Vitiated negative developer. 

4. Overexposure and underdevelopment of the print. 

5. Print developer too soft or depleted. 

6 . Light-struck or over-age paper. 

A too contrasty print lacking half-tones may be caused by— 

1. A too contrasty negative emulsion. 

2 . Too contrasty lighting of the subject. 

3. Too contrasty local colour in the subject. 

4. Too hard a negative developer. 

5. Too hard a print developer. 

6 . Too vigorous a printing paper. 

The Ultimate Photographic Test. 

The two ultimate photographic tests of a print are DEFINITION 
and GRADATION. The definition test dictates that all edges must 
be sharp, that all parts of the image must be in focus, and that there 
must be no fuzziness or falling off. The gradation test dictates that 
there must he the fullest possible photographic presentation of the 
half-tones of the subject. No negative is adaptable to the uses of 
projection control unless it is first capable of making a good, clean 
straight print. 


48 



William Mortensen 


“Cloth Merchant — Scotland ” 


49 



Chapter Five 


Local Printing 


The camera is unselective. 

This is a truism—trite, hackneyed and obvious. But it can’t be 
said too often to anyone who is trying to make the best use of his 
camera. What you see and what your camera sees are two different 
things. You see, for the most part, what you want to see; you see 
a thing in the aspect that interests you, plus various emotional 
garnishings peculiar only to yourself. But the camera sees a subject 
stolidly and complete. It records the whole works, not only the 
single aspect that pleases you, but a whole collection of trashy and 
distracting incidentals that you overlooked entirely. Indeed, some¬ 
times it seems that it perversely invents disagreeable details. 

One of the first things that the photographer must learn to do 
is to put himself in the camera’s place, as it were, and to see things 
as it sees them. But, despite our best efforts, it still happens that 
we get many things in our pictures that we wish were not there, and 
leave out things that we thought we saw in the subject. Somehow, 
the wrong things are emphasized, shadows fall in the wrong places, 
and tonalities are wrongly balanced. 

In correcting these faults of emphasis and balance, the several 
procedures of local printing are extremely useful. 


50 


The Scope of Local Printing. 

Between the lens of the enlarger and the focusing hoard there 
is a space varying from a few inches to several feet. By manipu¬ 
lations within this neglected space, directing and regulating the 
passage of the light, are performed the various operations of local 
printing. 

Local printing lends itself to emphasis of significant and salient 
details (significant and salient to you, that is, although your camera 
may not see it that way). Certain essential or climactic points, such 
as the eyes in a portrait, often demand darkening in tone. And local 
printing, by deftly placed accents, may effectively stress the key 
contours in a composition. In this placing of accents, in the “losing 
and finding of outlines,” photography comes about as close as pos¬ 
sible to the concise quality of draughtsmanship. 

Conversely, local printing aids in the elimination of subordi¬ 
nation of detail that is unpleasant, superfluous or incongruous. 
Unfortunate shadows under the chin or on backgrounds, confused 
masses of extraneous detail in backgrounds or in clothing, acciden¬ 
tally included objects that are meaningless or in direct conflict with 
the essential idea of the picture—these and similar problems may 
be often solved by local printing. 

By dodging—which is a variety of local printing—the placing 
of contrast may be regulated. This is frequently advantageous, for 
negatives often fail to comply with the axiom of picture construction 
that the point of greatest interest and the point of greatest contrast 
should coincide. 

What the Camera Sees. 

We have already mentioned the camera’s embarassing facility in 
painstakingly recording trivialities and carefully emphasizing the 
wrong things. Let us look at a specific instance. 

In Figure 12, we were attracted by the delicate blonde beauty 
of the child. But look at the variety of irrelevant and disturbing 
items that the camera managed to include: 

1 . The pattern of the dress is very conspicuous and “busy”. 


51 


Figure 12. 
Straight print, 
without control. 



2 . There is a shadow on the background. 

3. There is a large, dark, out-of-focus lump of nothing-in- 
particular in the lower left corner. 

4. The eyes are too pale. 

5. The hair is too dark. 

6 . The ear is too conspicuous. 

7. The nostrils are too heavily shadowed. 

8 . The nose shadow is too strongly marked. 

9. Shadows on the neck and around the mouth are dark 
and smudgy. 

All of these things are definitely at variance with the qualities that 
attracted us to the subject matter. 


52 




A Sample of Procedure. 

Figure 13 comes much nearer to the picture we wanted to get. 
The difference between Figures 12 and 13 is a matter of selective 
local printing. This is the general procedure: 

With the orange filter in position, frame the head to the place¬ 
ment and relative size that you wish. Close down the diaphragm of 
the lens to stop f.22. With the right hand hold the aperture board 
(described in Chapter Two) in front of the lens, between it and 
the printing frame. By masking the hole with the fingers of the left 
hand it is possible to cut the light passing through to a crescent or 
a mere pin-point. (See Figures 3 and 4.) Note that a replica of 
the image appears on the aperture board — slightly blurred and 


53 


indistinct it is true, but sufficiently definite to guide you in your 
printing. Now remove the filter and let a small round spot of light 
play over one of the eyes. Do likewise to the other eye, being very 
careful to give equal time to each. (For results of unbalanced print¬ 
ing see Figure 49.) Then allow the light to play over the lips for 
about the same length of time, taking care to avoid the nostrils. Next 
paint in the hair bordering both sides of the face and darken one or 
two other accents in the hair. Now, with the hole narrowed down 
to a mere slit, trace down the side of the head, allowing the light to 
emphasize the delicate line of forehead, temple and lower cheek. 
Draw in the neck-line with a slight accent here and there. 

Now withdraw the fingers from the hole and move the aperture 
hoard nearer the lens until the entire head* is seen on the print. 
Allow a general exposure of about the same length as that given each 
of the eyes, gradually bringing the board near the lens until the 
entire negative has had an exposure. Replace the orange filter, 
remove the negative from the enlarger, and close down the lens to 
its smallest stop. Then, with your fist clenched and held in front 
of the lens, remove the filter and, with the shadow of your fist 
shielding the face of the image, revolve your arm and elbow, keeping 
the center of the print from being exposed. (See Figure 14.) Work 
gradually nearer the lens until you have obscured the entire print. 
Replace the filter. 

In the finished print, Figure 13, it is apparent that the errors 
listed above have been corrected. The various distracting and irrele¬ 
vant items have been elided or eliminated, and the attention has 
been focused on the few simple and significant elements. 

The Tools for Local Printing. 

Before discussing further the methods of local printing, let us 
check up on the tools available for the purpose. 

1 . The “aperture board”—described in Chapter Two. 

2 . The “local dodger,” consisting of a tuft of cotton (Figure 
14B) or a bit of passe-partout attached to a wire handle. 

* If the hair is quite dark, give a preliminary exposure to the face only before moving the aperture 
board to include the hair. 


54 





Figure 14-A. Dodging with fist. 


Figure 14-B. Dodging with tuft of cotton. 


3. Specialized devices, usually consisting of cut-outs, made 
for individual problems. 

More useful and versatile than any of these, however, are two 
other gadgets—your hands. For dodging a large area, such as the 
head in a portrait, the fist is generally used. (Figure 14A.) For 
smaller areas, the finger tip is better. For straight-edged areas at 
the sides of pictures, the flat of the hand is used. The hand can 
frequently be shaped to special contours, or may even take the place 
of the aperture hoard. 

Three Types of Local Printing . 

The procedure outlined above, in connection with Figure 13, 
involves three different types of local printing. 

1. Spot printing. 

2. Dodging. 

3. Vignetting. 

The first two—spot printing and dodging—are complementary 
processes. Spot printing consists in limiting the printing action to 


55 








a small chosen area. Dodging (which we might call “local not - 
printing”) consists in eliminating or reducing the printing action 
in a chosen area. As a matter of fact hotli operations always take 
place together; since we spot-print by means of dodging out every¬ 
thing else, and we dodge by printing all other areas. This statement 
may seem a bit cryptic, but use of the processes will make it clear. 

The third type of local printing—vignetting—is really a special¬ 
ized sort of spot printing for large areas. 

Now let us consider the separate types of local printing in more 
detail. 

Spot Printing. 

Spot printing consists, as we have said, in limiting the printing 
action of the negative to a small area of image. This is usually done 
by interposing the aperture hoard so that only a small beam is pro¬ 
jected onto the sensitized paper. The diameter of the printing beam 
may be increased or lessened by moving the board closer to or 


56 







Figure 16. Emphasis to eyes and hair by spot printing. 


57 




farther from the lens. Further control of the shape and size of the 
beam is obtained by inserting one or more fingers through the 
aperture in the board. On some occasions the hand alone may he 
used instead of the board. By combining this procedure with a 
general printing it is possible to print some areas more strongly 
than others. 

In practically all cases of spot printing there is also some general 
printing of the entire image. However, the relative amounts of spot 
and general printing will vary greatly in different cases. Roughly, 
we may notice three categories of this relationship: 

1. The general printing is very light, only enough to indi¬ 
cate the main contours. Almost the entire effect is created 
by the spot printing. (This was the procedure followed 
in Figure 13.) 

2 . The image is printed up almost to normal density. Then 
spot printing is used to give additional emphasis to chosen 
points. (This was the procedure in Figure 16, in which 
the eyes received the extra accent.) 

3. The main image receives full exposure. Then spot print¬ 
ing is used to darken obtrusive white areas. 

The last two methods are apt to prove most generally useful. 
Not only is the first method extremely difficult in execution, but 
it demands very special subject matter—delicate, impersonal, and 
high in key. 

Spot Printing for Emphasis. 

Spot printing is generally used for one of three purposes: 

1. Emphasis. 

2. Elimination. 

3. Balance. 

First, the matter of emphasis. Portraits are frequently improved 
by accents of additional printing of certain salient features. The 
eyes, lips, and the shadows in the hair are the spots most likely to 
need such treatment. Figure 13 is a rather extreme example of it. 

Figures 15 and 16 show that this emphasis may lend a certain 


58 



Figure 17. Typical snapshot material. Figure 18. Disturbing elements eliminated 

by spot printing. 


distinction to an otherwise commonplace bit of portraiture. Note 
how the darks in eyes and hair, although they appear black in Figure 
15, are made (in Figure 16) to appear even blacker and are given 
an increased pungency by slightly “holding back” the surrounding 
areas. The aperture board was, of course, used for this purpose. 

Use this sort of emphasis sparingly. The whole value of the 
added accents is lost if they are scattered liberally throughout the 
picture. 

Spot Printing for Elimination. 

In pictures such as Figure 13, in which the general printing is 
slight, the period of spot printing will accomplish the elimination 
of various undesirable details. Thus, in Figure 13, the heavy shadow 
under the chin, the shadow on the background, and the contrasty 
pattern of the dress are all eliminated by the simple device of avoid¬ 
ing them while spot printing. 

Such complete elimination as this, however, can only be accom- 


59 




plished when, as in Figure 13, the general printing is very light. In 
cases in which the general printing is normal, or nearly so, elimina¬ 
tion or reduction of such detail as the hat shadow in Figure 29, can 
only be brought about by dodging. 

Figure 17 shows conditions commonly met in run-of-the-mill 
snapshots—out-of-focus background and disturbing detail in the 
doorway alongside of the head. Figure 18 is no masterpiece of por¬ 
traiture, but local printing and reframing have made it a much 
more pleasing piece of work. 

Spot Printing for Balance. 

Another use of spot printing is in the balance of tones . There 
are numerous common predicaments (particularly in portraiture) 
in which such balancing is called for. 

1 . Balancing two heads in one portrait. A frequent problem of 
the photographer nowadays is the making of a presentable portrait 


60 










Figure 21. Straight print, without control. Figure 22. Finished portrait with hair tone 

balanced. 


of mother and daughter in which daughter is sun-tanned to the 
ultimate degree and mother has her customary indoor complexion. 
Ordinarily, with a negative of this combination, if you print for a 
good presentation of the daughter’s face, mother will be anaemic 
and underexposed; while if you print to give mother’s complexion 
a break, daughter will look like an African princess. 

The same problem appears, in a less aggravated form, whenever 
a blonde and brunette are photographed together. It is also apt to 
occur whenever a man and woman are photographed on the same 
negative. (Figure 19.) 

The reasonable and practicable solution of this predicament lies 
in local printing. In fact, it is the only solution, as such extensive 
retouching is quite out of the question. Figure 20 shows how the 
situation in Figure 19 may be corrected. The delicate half-tones of 
the paler face are first allowed to imprint themselves through the 
aperture board up to nearly the required density. Then the entire 


61 










picture is exposed until the other face is properly printed. This 
procedure (provided the two operations are correctly timed) will 
secure a more pleasing balance between the tones of the two faces. 

2 . Balancing within the limits of a single face. Very dark hair 
combines with a pale complexion to present a common photographic 
dilemma. As indicated above, both elements cannot be advanta¬ 
geously rendered at the same time (even on soft paper): either the 
hair is excessively black and devoid of gradation (Figure 21) or 
else the face is under-printed. By means of local printing with the 
aperture board it is possible to hold back somewhat the dark area 
of the hair and at the same time to secure a stronger rendering of 
the flesh tones. (Figure 22.) In this case, a preliminary exposure 
was given to the face only. A second briefer exposure was given to 
the face and hair together. Finally, the shoulders were vignetted 


62 



There will, of course, be two parts to the cut-out. (Figure 25.) 
Part “1” includes the principal subject; part u 2,” the background. 
“2” is used for spot printing; “1,” as we will see in a moment, for 
dodging. 

Cut-outs are also used sometimes in Combination Printing (as 
will be described in Chapter Seven). 

Figure 27 shows the results obtained by the use of a cut-out to 
secure additional emphasis in a figure in a landscape. The “2” cut¬ 
out was used for part of the exposure time to hold back the back¬ 
ground, which in Figure 26 is too nearly the same tonality as the 
figure. 

Dodging. 

Dodging is in effect the reverse of spot printing, since it consists 


65 


in holding hack the print in chosen areas. This is done hy casting 
a restraining shadow on the sensitized paper during projection. In 
practice all sorts of instruments are employed in dodging—the tip 
of the finger, the fist, the flat of the hand, a wisp of cotton on a wire 
handle, a peacock feather, a cut-out, or any other implement that 
the emergency and its inspiration may suggest. The choice of the 
instrument depends upon the size, shape, and location of the area 
affected. 

According to the demands of the situation, two different proce¬ 
dures are followed in dodging: 

1. Dodging during printing, with the negative in the enlarger. 

2. Dodging after printing is completed, with the negative 
removed from the enlarger. 

The first procedure is followed when small and limited areas are 
affected; the second, when alteration of tone or reduction of contrast 
is desired over a large area of the picture. 

Three Uses of Dodging. 

There are three general uses of dodging. 

1 . Correcting unbalanced illumination. Carelessness or reckless 
experimentation with your lighting is liable to produce the all-too- 
familiar effect of a face strongly lighted on one side and lost in 
shadow on the other. Or you may get a shadow from an overhanging 
hat without providing for adequate reflection in the dark area. Of 
course, it is much preferable to get your lighting correct in the first 
place; but, in order to salvage an otherwise good negative, and to 
avoid the inconvenience of a re-sitting, it is sometimes useful to 
resort to dodging. By holding back the shadow area during printing 
(with the finger tip or a bit of cotton on a wire), you may not only 
correct the gross unbalance in the lighting, but may actually pull 
up into visibility detail and half-tones that were apparently lacking 
in the lighter areas. (See Figures 28 and 29, also Figures 30 and 31.) 

This unbalance is characteristic of uncontrolled lighting, par¬ 
ticularly of daylight when there is no diffusion from high fog or thin 
clouds. Most pictures taken hy direct sunlight require some such 


66 



Figure 26. Straight print, without control. Figure 27. Emphasis on figure by spot 

printing ivith cut-out. 


correction of balance. Figure 32 is a rather extreme case, since most 
of the subject and background are in shadow, with the principal 
illumination falling on such secondary items as the edge of the face 
and the weeds in the foreground. In addition there is a distracting 
reflected glare on the white skirt. The correction (Figure 33) is 
made by means of spot printing and dodging. The whole picture is 
first given a brief preliminary exposure—just enough for the detail 
in the background. The figure then is given additional printing, 
with the aperture board protecting the background from additional 
darkening. Finally, the whole upper three-quarters of the picture 
is shadowed out with the flat of the hand, giving additional exposure 
to the pale vegetation in the foreground. 

Flash photography provides another application of dodging. 
Illumination from the flash bulb is very intense and, when you are 
working at close quarters, falls off very rapidly. Consequently, any 
foreground in your picture, any object nearer the camera than your 
principal subject matter, is practically certain to be burnt up on 


67 



Figure 28. 
Straight print, 
ivithout control. 


the negative. This local overexposure may he effectively corrected 
by dodging, and an appearance, at least, of half-tones may be 
restored to the foreground. 

Dodging may also be used to correct some lesser faults in lighting, 
such as a dark corner in a background. A shadow on the background, 
as in Figure 12, either may be directly dodged out with a tuft of 
cotton, or it may be simply elided in spot printing—which was the 
actual procedure in this case. 

2 . Adjusting tonal relationships with the background . When a 
Semi-Silhouette lighting is used,* it sometimes happens that there 
is too violent a contrast between the tone of the face and the tone 
of the background. This condition may be corrected by dodging. 
After the face is properly printed, the negative is removed from 

* Pictorial Lighting:, Chapter Five. 


68 









Figure 29. Hat shadow reduced by dodging. 


69 




Figure 30. Straight print, without control. Figure 31. Window detail recovered hy 

dodging. 


the enlarger, and, with the constantly moving shadow of the fist 
shielding the area occupied by the face, the background is given 
additional exposure. This procedure puts a little tone in the blank 
white background and produces a much more pleasing relationship 
between it and the face. 

In Figure 34 the strong contrast between the dark costume and 
the brightly lighted background detracts from the presentation of 
the face. Heavy dodging of the background, as in Figure 35, shifts 
the principal contrast, which now lies between costume and face, 
and makes a better picture. 

3. “Dodging in” for emphasis. A slightly different procedure is 
that known as “dodging in.” This is done, as described above, with 
the negative removed from the enlarger. But in this case the fist 
is held somewhat nearer the lens and is gradually moved in until 
its shadow covers the entire printing surface. This procedure pro¬ 
tects from alteration both the central image and the immediately 


70 





Figure 32. Straight print, without control. 


Figure 33. Unbalanced lighting corrected 
by dodging and spot printing. 



Figure 34. Straight print. Figure 35. Relationship to background 

adjusted by dodging. 



71 





Figure 36. Straight print, without control. 


adjacent background, causes an almost imperceptible darkening of 
the corners of the picture. Added emphasis is thus given to the 
image, since the attention is held comfortably within the picture 
area and prevented from straying into the corners. Increased “dodg¬ 
ing in” of a portrait produces an effect of strong illumination 
opposite the head. Abuse of the procedure results in unpleasant 
and freakish “halo” effects. 

Dodging with Cut-Outs. 

Dodging is generally done with rather informal tools—the fist, 


72 




Figure 37. Background fogged by dodging (with cut-out) with negative removed. 


a finger tip, or a tuft of cotton. But occasional cases require more 
precise workmanship. It is then necessary to use a cut-out. 

In Figure 36, for example, which was shot in a second-hand shop, 
the background is completely irrelevant. Instead of eliminating the 
background by spot printing—a possible procedure—we decided 
simply to fog it until it became inconspicuous and unrecognizable. 
(Figure 37.) A cut-out was needed to protect the complicated con¬ 
tour of the principal image. 

First, an exposure was given for the entire picture. Then, with 
the orange filter in place, the cut-out was adjusted to exactly fit the 


73 




image. Finally, tlie negative was removed and an additional exposure 
given to the background area, darkening it and reducing its contrast. 

Dodging in Landscape. 

The examples thus far have been largely in the field of por¬ 
traiture. But dodging also has numerous valuable uses in landscape. 

By means of dodging, tone may be restored to a sky that is blank 
and devoid of gradation. Figure 38, for example, was made on a 
brilliant gray day, and the original print shows a blank, white area 
where the sky should be. Not even a heavy filter would secure tone 
in the sky under these circumstances. But an excellent tone was 
produced by dodging. After an exposure sufficient to print the fore¬ 
ground, the right hand was held so as to shadow the picture as high 
as the skyline, while the left forefinger shadowed the figure where 
it is silhouetted against the sky. The sky area was then given addi¬ 
tional exposure, the right hand being gradually moved higher and 
nearer the camera until the entire picture was shadowed. The 
method gives a sky with gradation, pale near the horizon, darkening 
toward the zenith. 

Figure 40 demonstrates how progressive dodging may be used 
to bring out negative detail, latent but ordinarily unavailable. The 
straight print, Figure 39, shows a nearly opaque shadow in the fore¬ 
ground and a sky devoid of clouds. In making the controlled print, 
the exposure time was divided into three approximately equal 
periods. The first period consisted of a straight exposure, without 
dodging. Then, for the second period, the hand was held so as to 
shield the foreground shadow. Finally, the hand was raised and 
brought nearer the lens, so that for the third period nothing hut 
the dense sky was exposed. The finished print, Figure 40, discovers 
clouds in the sky and a satisfying amount of detail in the shadow. 
Figure 40 is undoubtedly much nearer to what the eye reported 
than is Figure 39. 

Dodging may introduce atmospheric interest into otherwise com¬ 
monplace landscape material. The arresting quality of Figure 41 
is due almost entirely to the dramatic streak of light. This effect was 
introduced by dodging during printing. The rather grim and con- 


74 


Hi 


“Country Lane’ 


Figure 38. Sky lone added by dodging. 


Alex Lilburn 



75 







Figure 39. Straight print, without control. 



Figure 40. Detail recovered in sky and foreground shadow by progressive dodging. 


76 




Figure 41. Dramatic effect enhanced by dodging. 


fused prospect in Figure 42 is pointed up by the added accent of 
the setting sun, introduced in making the finished print, Figure 43. 
The forefinger was held so that the shadow of its tip fell where the 
brightest spot on the horizon was to he. During the exposure, the 
finger was rotated in a semi-circle about this point. 

V ignetting. 

The third species of local printing is the process known as “vig¬ 
netting.” Those of sufficient maturity to recall that heroic age when 
cameras were cameras and photographers had hair on their chests 
may remember a gadget known as a “vignetter,” consisting of jagged 
semi-circle of cardboard attached to the facade of the 8 x 10 instru¬ 
ment. This produced an effect of head and shoulders floating un¬ 
attached in mid-air, which in those times was considered quite the 


77 



last word. An analogous effect may be produced in projection 
printing by means of the aperture board. An exposure is first made 
of the face (assuming you are dealing with a portrait negative), then 
the board is gradually moved nearer the lens of the enlarger, giving 
progressively diminished exposure to the surrounding parts of the 
print. This yields a picture pale and underexposed at the edges, 
deepening to its darkest tones at the center. The general effect is 
thus the reverse of that obtained by “dodging in,” and as a means 
of emphasis is not so successful as the latter process, owing to the 
distracting high key of the edges and corners. However, vignetting 
may he combined with “dodging in” to very good advantage: the 
falling off of image is supported by the darker tones secured by 
dodging, and the two effects unite to give powerful dominance to 
the center of the picture. 


78 



“Winter Evening” 


Figure 43. Glow added by local dodging. 


William Mortensen 


79 












Figure 44. Straight print. Figure 45. Vignetted only. 


The effect of the various processes may be judged from Figures 
44, 45 and 46. Figure 44 is the straight print, without control. In 
Figure 45 the head is merely vignetted. Note that the line of the 
shoulder and detail of the dress fades out, letting the head hover 
in a state of equivocal non-support. Figure 46 is both vignetted and 
“dodged in.” The head is here supported by the darker tones in the 
corners, and given greater pictorial dominance than in Figures 44 
or 45. 

The Technique of Local Printing. 

Up to this point we have devoted considerable space to discus¬ 
sion of what can he done with the various types of local printing, 
hut have passed lightly over the practical problem of hoiv it is done. 
The manipulations involved in local printing are simple enough in 
principle, but are annoyingly difficult in performance. They require 
dexterity and experience and may be learned only by doing, not by 
reading about them. 

80 







However, a few practical suggestions may be offered which may 
serve to shorten the painful and disillusioning period of appren¬ 
ticeship. 

1. The various tools used in local printing—the aperture 
board, the tuft of cotton, the fist, etc.—must be kept in 
gentle and continuous motion while in use. If the tool 
stops moving at any point, the printed area will have a 
sharp contour instead of a softly gradated edge. The 
aperture board should be vibrated constantly, or kept 
moving in tiny circles. In dodging in, the fist is held so 
that its shadow remains in the central area of the picture, 
while the forearm and elbow, swinging from the shoulder, 
rotate about it. When a cut-out is used, it means that a 


81 



well-marked contour is desired; so the movement should 
be very slight, just enough to barely fringe the edge of 
the printed area. 

2. Work always with the projector lens at a small aperture. 
You will thus be able to proceed deliberately and arrive 
at more accurate results. A miscalculation of one second 
would not count for much if your total exposure was 
thirty seconds, while it might be very serious if your 
total exposure was only four seconds. 

3. The essence of local printing is accurate timing. Matched 
areas (such as the eyes) must receive matched exposures. 
Close attention must be paid to the relationship between 
the exposure of the general printing and the exposure of 
the spot printing. They must always, and in all areas, 
add up to the correct exposure. 

4. You must keep your wits about you when you are doing 
local printing. You must at all times have a clear mental 
picture of what you have done and what you are going 
to do next. Otherwise, you may very easily skip one area 
and print another one twice. If you discover yourself 
getting rattled, slip in the orange filter immediately and 
pause until you figure things out. 

5. Rehearse each picture before you print it; feel out the 
sequence of operations and plan the timing. And when 
you print it, do it as you rehearsed it, without inspira¬ 
tional variations. 

6. The several sorts of local printing must be thought of 
simply as methods for controlling tone. If you try to go 
further and attempt to effect structural alteration by this 
means, you overstep the proper limits of the process and 
are inviting trouble. 

7. I think that I may be safe in promising you that your 
first print using these methods will not he a masterpiece. 
But study the thing anyway and try to figure out what 
went wrong. And then immediately plan, rehearse and 


82 



“M idday” William Mortensen 

Figure 47. Reduction of shadow on face by dodging. 

Glare on beach darkened by spot printing. 


83 





i m i . - rl 

Figure 48. Straight print. Figure 49. A typical early attempt at lo¬ 

cal printing, showing bruises and 
inequalities. 

execute another print. And then another. And then 
another. . . . By the time you reach the first gross, you 
may note some improvement. 

8. Since you are undoubtedly going to use up a lot of print¬ 
ing paper, don’t squander expensive material on your 
awkward period. Practice instead with the low-priced 
“Projection Proof.” And, if you should accidentally 
happen to turn out a good print, this paper will finish 
very satisfactorily. 

For Instance. 

Figure 48 represents the sort of problem that you might under¬ 
take in your first trials at local printing. The negative is good, and 
it makes a good clean projection print. However, there is a little 
too much detail in the dress, and the lighting is a little too contrasty. 
The rather cross-hatched arrangement of shadows keeps the eyes 
from dominating the picture as they should. There is too much loss 


84 




of detail in the shadowed portions of the hair. Finally, there is 
unequal illumination of the background. 

In Figure 49 an effort has been made to deal with these matters 
by means of dodging and spot printing. However, both the general 
printing and the subsequent spot printing have been insufficient, so 
that the final print is pale and anaemic. The dark area in the hair 
has been held hack too much, so that it is actually lighter than the 
rest. The eyes are unequally printed, and absent-minded handling 
of the aperture board has allowed several bruises to develop. 

Figure 50 shows a reasonable solution of these problems. Vig¬ 
netting has reduced the amount of crass detail in the dress. The 
hair tone has been more pleasingly balanced, and reduction of the 
shadows in the face permits the eyes to dominate. The background 
has been equalized and dodged in to darken the corners slightly. 


85 


Chapter Six 


Distortion 


All art is distortion. 

Not the copying of reality, but the interpretation of its meanings 
in terms of a medium, is the business of art. This means clarification 
by selective emphasis and elimination, it means the personal com¬ 
ment of the artist—all of which means distortion. Every art involves 
distortions dictated by the conditions of its particular medium—be 
it paint, sounds or words. Even the most literally conceived and 
executed photograph involves distortions: colours reduced to a scale 
of grays and solids to a convention of a single plane. 

Under the broad interpretation of the term, all the procedures 
of projection control are simply methods of distortion. But the 
particular distortion that I have reference to in this chapter is the 
distortion of form. 

For some reason, the distortion of form is, beyond all other sorts 
of distortion in art, most bitterly resented by the Philistine, who 
likes to think that literal duplication and likeness are the whole 
concern of art. He likes to see a nice recognizable cow (complete 
with brown and white spots) in a recognizable field (complete with 
daisies) in front of a recognizable sunset. But when Picasso paints 
the cow, or Redon paints the daisies, or Turner paints the sunset, 
he sneers and writes letters to the newspapers about the crazy 
Modernists. 


86 


The Background of Distortion. 

As a matter of fact, distortion of form is, of course, far from 
being a modern practice. The Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Doric 
Greeks, each race had its characteristic and distinguishing distortion. 
Even the Venus of Melos, popularly cited as an instance of perfec¬ 
tion of form, distorts to a considerable degree the normal propor¬ 
tions of the human body.* 

Every culture expresses itself in terms of its particular distortion. 
There is cruelty and incisiveness in the lines of Assyrian carving. 
Chinese art forms seem to develop out of, and to return to, the circle 
and the sphere, which well summarize the balanced and self-con¬ 
tained characteristics of the race. In the dizzy lift of Gothic 
cathedrals and in the strangely attenuated sculptures that hang aloft, 
one reads of an age that raised itself above this dusty existence to 
one of mystic exaltation. In modern American cities the vertical 
thrust of sky-scrapers speaks of indominable growth, and on the 
prairies the heavy horizontals of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses tell 
of the vast extension and spaciousness of the American scene. 

Indeed the instinct to distortion is deeply imbedded in the 
primitive stratum of every human being. Young children, who have 
an artistic instinct that they usually grow out of or have educated 
out of them, have a great zest for “tall tales,” and are prone to make 
this dull world more interesting by means of effective exaggeration. 
The small becomes infinitesimal, and the large, gigantic, as they 
report it, and the dark end of the upper hall becomes interestingly 
populated with lions and bears. Closely akin to these products of 
the child-artist is the legend of our Northwest, that characteristically 
American contribution to folklore, that tells of the exploits of Paul 
Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. 

Instead of being a sign of aesthetic degeneracy, as angry Acade¬ 
micians are apt to imply, the present day fondness for exaggerated 
forms is a welcome sign of return to primitive first principles that 

* The average figure is about six and a half heads tall; but Venus is eight heads tall—a relation¬ 
ship which makes her practically a pinhead by so-called normal standards. 


87 




Figure 51. 

Shape of image elongated by tilting 
frame. 


recognized (as the child instinctively does) that the business of a 
work of art is to make an effect, not to report a fact. 

The Photographic Use of Distortion. 

Through the photographic use of distortion one escapes further 
than is possible by local printing from the literal, realistic conditions 
of the negative. It is the most effective and most drastic expression 
of the emotional grasp of form. It is for this reason more limited 
in its applications. One must he very sure that the distortion is 
already suggested or implied by lines or forms in the original image. 
If there is, further, a hint of the bizarre, the symbolic, or the ideal¬ 
ized, distortion may probably be resorted to with excellent effect. 
Such distortion may be slight—just a sly underlining of latent ten¬ 
dencies of line or mass—or it may be extreme and startling. In any 
case, be sure that the distorted form is more significant than the 
original. In putting the principle of distortion to use, don’t look 
for subjects that could possibly be distorted, but look for those that 
demand to be distorted. 

Various things have motivated the distortions used in the illus¬ 
trations for this chapter. Figures 54 and 56 might be designated as 
idealizations, in which there is a pointing up of exaggerations 


88 






Figure 52. 
Elongation of inverted 
image. 



already implied in the originals. Figure 58 belongs rather to the 
field of the symbolic, in which the distorted form has distinct 
emotional value. In Figures 66 and 67, the distortion partakes of 
the quality of caricature or cartoon. And the corrective distortion 
employed in Figures 61 and 63 is entirely utilitarian in intent. 

Methods. 

Elongation is the type of distortion most commonly employed in 
projection control. Such elongation as that employed in Figure 54 or 
56 is obtained by tilting forward the printing frame. (See Figure 1.) 
The angle of the tilt determines the amount of distortion produced. 

When the printing frame is placed at an angle, of course most 
of the image is thrown out of focus. This condition is met, however, 
by closing down the diaphragm of the enlarger lens to almost the 


89 






Figure 53. 
Straight print. 



smallest stop. When this is clone, it is possible to bring all parts of 
the image into focus, despite their differing distances from the lens. 
Before closing down, obtain a sharp focus at about the middle of 
the image. It will not be necessary to close down so far, in this 
case, as it would be if the focus were secured at either the top or the 
bottom. 

In printing with a frame tilted forward at the top, your oblong 
image takes on about the shape shown in Figure 51. In order to he 
able to trim the picture back into shape, it is necessary that the 
image on the negative have ample neutral space surrounding it. 

Since a pyramidal formation is generally desirable in a picture, 
the type of elongation shown in Figure 51 is usually followed, with 
the top of the image narrowed and the bottom widened. However, 


90 



Figure 54. 
“Circe? 

Finished print with elongation, 
spot printing , and dodging in. 



there is occasional use for the opposite type of distortion, produced 
either hy inverting the negative or by tilting the frame backward 
at the top. Figure 52 illustrates this variation. 

Samples of Procedure. 

This is the procedure followed in making Figures 54 and 56: 
Tip the printing frame forward about fifteen degrees. (See Figure 
1.) Frame the head, being careful to keep the line of the features 
perpendicular. With the lens wide open, focus the image at the 
center of the face. (It may be noted in passing that slightly dif¬ 
ferent distortions may he obtained by focusing at the top or the 
bottom of the image.) Now close down the diaphragm to nearly its 
lowest stop, or until the top and bottom parts of the picture become 


91 









sharp. Give an exposure, which will, of course, owing to the small 
lens aperture, be considerably longer than normal. Spot printing 
may be employed also if you wish. After the exposure has been 
made, replace the printing frame in its usual vertical position, and 
with the negative removed from the enlarger and the lens closed 
down, “dodge in” as described in the previous chapter. 

In elongations of this type, it is necessary that the subject be 
very formally arranged, with the line of the features vertical and 
the shoulders level. Otherwise, asymmetrical distortions will be 
produced. 

“Fear” (Figure 58) is a combination of several procedures: 
local printing, elongation, and multiple printing. A straight print 
of the original negative shows the extent of the manipulations. 


92 


Figure 56. 
“Portrait” 
Finished print with 
elongation. 



(Figure 57.) The printing frame is tilted and the negative focused 
upon it, as above described, taking care to allow space in the back¬ 
ground for the addition of the graduated shadows. After closing 
down the lens until the entire image is in focus, an exposure is 
made, employing spot printing to emphasize the dark shroud around 
the head, and to build up the contrast near the center of the picture. 
Vignette by moving the cardboard nearer the lens until the whole 
image has been exposed. Replace the orange filter and rack the 
enlarger back about an inch. This will of course produce a slightly 
larger image. With the fist so held as to protect the image already 
exposed, remove the filter and expose again, allowing only the dark 
edge of the drape and bit of the diaphanous gauze to record them¬ 
selves. Replace the filter and repeat the process, moving the enlarger 




93 






Figure 57. 
Straight print. 



further back each time for three or four exposures. Let each 
exposure be a little less than the one before, thereby securing the 
mysterious gradation of shadow-forms in the background. Finally, 
remove the negative, close down the diaphragm to its lowest stop, 
and do the usual “dodging in.” 

Distortion in Landscape. 

Distortion is a device that may be effectively employed in land¬ 
scape also. Since there usually is in landscape no immediately 
recognizable basis of comparison, distortion is not so apparent as 
in a picture involving the human element. Yet it may serve the 
same end, giving additional stress to the effective formations in the 
picture. 

In Figure 59, for example, the picture gains its principal effec¬ 
tiveness through the receding planes of the hills. These planes have 


94 






“Fear” William Mortensen 

Figure 58. Finished print with elongation, spot printing, 
multiple printing and dodging in. 


95 





“ Evening ” F. F. Lockwood 

Figure 59. Distortion applied to landscape, emphasizing 
receding planes of hills. 


been emphasized by elongation, which has stretched the low-lying 
hills into lofty ranges. 

Everyday Uses of Elongation. 

All the examples of distortion that we have thus far cited belong 
to the category of the exaggerated and stylized. However, the 
procedures described in this chapter also have their more normal 
and pedestrian applications. 

Aside from its pictorial uses, elongation is sometimes a valuable 
device in ordinary portrait work. A face that is noticeably round or 
broad may be more flatteringly presented if a slight amount of 
distortion is employed. The elongation should never be enough to 
be detected. For this purpose, the printing frame is tilted only 
slightly, usually not more than five degrees. Figures 60 and 61 
illustrate this application of elongation. To prevent the distortion 
from becoming apparent, it is necessary, as in Figure 60, that the 
head be erect and the shoulders level. 

A common photographic fault is that shown in Figure 62. Unless 


96 




Figure 60. Straight print. 


Figure 61. Portrait ivith slight elongation. 



Figure 62. Architectural distortion. 


Figure 63. Distortion corrected hy counter • 
distortion during printing. 


97 











Figure 64. 
Straight print. 


your camera has a rising front, it is impossible to avoid such 
converging lines when dealing with tall architectural subjects. How¬ 
ever, the distorted perspective of Figure 62 may be corrected by 
counter-distortion in printing. The angle of the tilting frame is 
adjusted until the converging lines of the image on the negative are 
exactly neutralized by the diverging lines of the projected image. 
(Figure 63.) If the frame tilts forward only, it will be necessary to 
project the image upside down in order to make this correction. 

Lateral Distortion. 

If the printing frame or negative carrier is so arranged that it 
may be rotated about a vertical axis, it is possible to secure distortion 
in a lateral direction. This type of distortion is less generally applic¬ 
able than elongation, but may be occasionally used to produce very 


98 






Figure 65. Use of lateral distortion. 


99 











Figure 66. 

“Uncontrolled Projection ’ 
Use of local distortion. 


| 

strange results. In Figure 65, the negative was somewhat tilted, so 
that the principal elongation took place along the diagonal. 

Local Distortion. 

In the foregoing examples the whole picture is subjected to equal 
distortion. It is possible, however, to elongate a portion of the image 
while the rest is rendered normally. Such local distortion is best 
suited to caricature in a humorous or satiric vein. To accomplish 
this sort of distortion a piece of white bristol board, 11x14, is sub¬ 
stituted for the printing frame. Thumb-tack the bottom and curl 





100 





“A brasion-T one !” 


R. P. Piperoux 


Figure 67. Use of local distortion. 


the upper half forward. With the lens wide open, focus the image 
on the curved portion; then close down till all parts of the image are 
sharp. Fit the bromide paper to the curve, clipping it along the 
edges to hold it in correct alignment. In exposure, allow for the 
reduced aperture. This method of distortion admits of endless 
variations: the field of distortion may be placed wherever wished, 
and the degree and direction of the distortion controlled with fair 
accuracy. As in other phases of projection control the opportunity 
is large for individual development and application of the basic 
principle. 

Figures 66 and 67 are examples of this type of procedure. 
Figure 67 is a former pupil’s portrait of himself after a large evening 
spent with “Abrasion-Tone.” 





Chapter Seven 


Combination Printing 


Among the earliest elaborations on the simple photographic 
process were trials at combining parts of several negatives into a 
single print. Two of the best known of these early examples of 
combination printing are Henry Peach Robinson’s Fading Away, 
based on three negatives, and Rejlander’s The Two Ways of Life , a 
fabulously elaborate allegorical piece incorporating parts of (believe 
it or not) thirty negatives.* 

Now, without going into any such virtuosity as this (which is 
rarely worth the trouble it involves), there are numerous occasions 
on which the reasonably skilled photographer will find combination 
printing both interesting and advantageous. For the most part, in 
this chapter, we will stress the simpler and more usable applications 
of the procedure. 

Two Types of Combination Printing. 

Before discussing the technique of combination printing, we 
should note that there are two ways in which it may be used. The 
mechanical problems of the two types are substantially the same; 
the principal difference is one of purpose. Here are the two sorts 
of combination printing: 


These two pictures are reproduced in Photography 1839-1937, Museum of Modern Art, New York. 




Figure 68. Straight print: foreground. 


1. Construction in terms of literal picture elements. 

2. Montage—or construction in terms of ideas. 

The two classic examples mentioned above— Fading Away and 
The Two Ways of Life —are instances of combination printing in 
terms of literal picture elements. So also are Figures 79 and 87. 
The commonest application of this sort of combination printing is 
the addition of backgrounds. 

The other type of combination printing is the one generally 
known as “montage.” This term was originally applied by the 
French pioneers in the motion picture industry to the mere mechan¬ 
ical operations of cutting and assemblying the various shots consti¬ 
tuting a motion picture. It soon came to mean, however, the effect 
produced by the combination of these separate pictorial units. The 
term “montage,” whether applied to motion pictures or still pictures, 
means building up and reinforcing an idea by the combination or 
juxtaposition of diverse pictorial elements. The idea may grow out 
of the likeness of the elements or be generated by the clash of 
opposites. Always in montage there is the overtone of an idea that 


103 


Figure 69. 

Straight print: background. 



is not present in the picture elements themselves, but results from 
their combination. In Figure 70, for instance, the strange hauteur 
of all cats is commented upon in terms of the inscrutability of the 
mask and of the ancient mystery of the pyramids. 

Montage: A Sample of Procedure. 

We will discuss the mechanics of montage first because it offers 
fewer technical difficulties than combination printing in terms of 
literal picture elements. 

“La Chatte ” Figure 70, will serve to illustrate the mechanical 
procedure of most montages. Note the characteristics of the two 
original negatives, Figures 68 and 69. There characteristics are 
essential for negatives that are to be used in combination in the 
manner described: 

1. The subjects should be photographed with a plain white 
background. 


104 




2. The lighting of both should he either Basic or Semi- 
Silhouette in quality.* 

It is barely possible, perhaps, to use negatives of a different type, 
but the problem is much simpler if these limitations are observed. 

Place the negative of the principal subject (in this case the cat, 
Figure 68) in the enlarger and give it a normal exposure with slight 
additional emphasis to the head by means of local printing. Adjust 
the orange filter to prevent further exposure, and with a wax pencil 
indicate on the glass of the printing frame the key points in outline 
of the subject. (In the present case it would be necessary to show 
simply the side of the head and the contour of back and flank.) Now 
substitute the second negative, adjusting it to its proper relationship 

* Pictorial Lighting, Chapters Three and Five. 


105 





Figure 72. Finished print ivitli added sky 
background. 


Figure 71. Straight print: foreground. 


to the first image by means of the guide marks. Note (by means of 
the same guide marks) whether any part of the second image overlaps 
the first. (In the present case, overlapping would be apparent with 
the bottom line of the pyramid and the heavy shadow in front of 
the shoulder.) Determine experimentally how it will be necessary 
to hold your hand to protect the first image. Now erase the pencil 
marks, place your hand so as to shadow the first image, remove the 
filter, and give an exposure about half the length of the first one. 
This gives an impression of another lighter-toned plane and permits 
the cat to dominate the composition. For the final step, remove the 
negative, close the diaphragm all the way down, and “dodge in” 
slightly to darken the corners of the picture and blend the two 
images. 

This picture may be taken as a fairly typical instance of montage 
procedure. Let us sum up the significant points. 

1. There are generally only two negatives involved. 

2. One negative is principal subject, the other is background. 


106 






io: 


Figure 73. Montage in a group portrait. 










Figure 74. Straight print: foreground. 


3. The two are related to each other symbolically rather 
than literally. 

4. Both were made with Basic or Semi-Silhouette light in 
front of a white background. 

5. The principal subject is framed and printed first. The 
opaque background keeps the surrounding area clean for 
printing the second negative. 

6. A “cut-out” is rarely used for protecting the first image 
during the printing of the second negative. Since there is 
no literal connection between the two, it is better to 
roughly dodge out the first image. 

7. The second negative is ordinarily printed much lighter 
than the first. This subordinates it and emphasizes its 
non-literal quality. 


108 





Figure 75. Finished print with added sky. Some dodging to emphasize light streak near 
center of picture . 


8. Dodging in with the negative removed will further sub¬ 
ordinate the background. 

Montage in Portraiture . 

Montage finds an interesting application in portraiture. By this 
means it is possible to include in the picture a decorative and enter¬ 
taining reference to the subject’s hobby or vocation. Thus, if the 
subject happens to be a musician, the background may contain a 
shadowy reference to a piano keyboard, the scroll of a violin, or 
merely a musical staff. As in the case noted above, the decorative, 
symbolic element must be printed much lighter than the principal 
subject. 

The group portrait shown in Figure 73 is an example of this use 


109 










of montage. This picture commemorates a summer that these six 
companions spent at the beach, swimming and sailing. As in Figure 
70, both the component negatives were shot in front of white back¬ 
ground. The ship, of course, was a model. Note that the background 
is printed faint and shadowy, and that it is dodged out an ample 
distance from the heads. This establishes it frankly as an unrealistic, 
decorative element. 

Combination of Literal Elements. 

The other type of combination printing is carried out in terms of 
literal picture elements. This type is usually more difficult than 
montage since it involves accurate and realistic matching of parts of 
two or more negatives. 

The most common application of this sort of combination print¬ 
ing is the addition of backgrounds. Particularly in landscapes is 
this procedure valuable. A good many shots may be improved by 
the addition of clouds to blank sky areas. 

The addition of clouds is a fairly simple matter if a few con¬ 
ditions are observed. 

1. The original sky should he blank and almost white. A 
dark “filtered” sky will not work. 

2. The areas immediately surrounding the sky should be 
fairly dark in tone. 

3. The cloud negative should not be too contrasty or heavily 
filtered. 

Under these conditions it is possible to print in a sky background 
without recourse to cutouts. In Figure 72, for example, the fore¬ 
ground (Figure 71) was printed first, with some dodging to pick up 
detail in the foliage at the right. Then, with the orange filter in 
place, the general contour of the masses enclosing the sky area were 
marked with the wax pencil. By the use of these guide lines, the 
cloud negative (Figure 80) was properly adjusted and aligned. Then 
the lines were rubbed out and an exposure given for the clouds. If 
the masses adjacent to the sky area are dark in tone (as in the foliage 
masses on either side of Figure 71), there is no possibility of the 


110 



Figure 76. Stright print: foreground. Figure 77. Finished print with added sky. 

Also dodging in dense shadow under roof. 


cloud image overlapping. Since the horizon line is lighter in tone, 
however, it was protected, during the second printing, by the edge of 
the hand. If a small amount of overlapping does appear in these 
cases, it may be readily eliminated by a little abrasion.* 

Further examples are shown in Figures 75 and 77. 

Figure 79 is a similar problem. In this case, the composition is 
given additional “punch” and drama by dodging out the light area 
in the peak of the roof. 

Sky backgrounds may also be added to pictures taken in the 
studio. It is necessary under these circumstances, as we have noted 
before, that the subject be photographed in front of a well-illumi¬ 
nated white background. 

Figure 82 is an example of this procedure. The sky (Figure 80) 
is from the same negative as that used in Figure 72. For the record, 
it may be mentioned that the figure was originally photographed 
standing upright. As in previous cases, the foreground figure 
(Figure 81) was exposed first. Then, with the aid of temporary 

* Print Finishing, Chapter Four. Camera Craft, 1938. 


Ill 





Figure 78. Straight print: foreground. 


guide lines, the sky background was fitted into position. When this 
was done, it became apparent that dark areas in the clouds would 
overlap light areas in the figure. To prevent this, the whole central 
zone of the clouds was dodged out with the fist during printing. A 
little extra dodging with the negative removed was done to secure 
additional contrast around the head. 

A somewhat more difficult problem in combination printing is 
involved in Figure 85. Since it is necessary to fit the background 
neatly and realistically around the head, a cut-out must be used. 
As we have noted in Chapter Five, a cut-out is best made by cutting 
up a preliminary print of the precise size that the final one is to he. 
(Figure 25.) 

The following procedure is one that is much more conveniently 
and accurately carried out with a vertical type of enlarger. Lay the 


112 






Figure 79. Finished print with added sky. Dodging used to lighten area in peak of roof. 


cut-out of the head (“1” Figure 25) on the printing frame. Then 
adjust and focus the enlarger so that the projected image precisely 
fits the cut-out. Remove the cut-out and expose. Then, with the 
orange filter in place, replace the cut-out in exact register with the 
image. Remove the negative of the head and put in the one of the 
tapestry. Adjust the latter negative to the proper scale, being very 
careful not to move the cut-out. With the cut-out still in place, 
expose the second negative. 

Numerous variations in effect are possible in making such a 
print. Here are a few. 

1. The background may be printed either light or dark. 

2. If the background seems too aggressive and full of detail, 
it may be thrown slightly out of focus. (Figure 88.) 


113 






Figure 80. Straight print: background. 



Figure 81. Straight print: foreground. 


114 









Figure 82. Finished combination print, with additional spot printing and dodging. 


3. With the negative removed, the print may be slightly or 
heavily dodged in. This procedure is useful if the back¬ 
ground is too contrasty. 

It is preferable, as we have said, that the subject be photographed 
in front of a white background with a Semi-Silhouette lighting, as 
in Figure 80. However, by use of two cut-outs, it is possible to 
eliminate one background and replace it with another. This pro¬ 
cedure, needless to say, is considerably more difficult than the one 
just described. 

In outline, the method is as follows. You have two cut-outs as 
shown in Figure 25: cut out “1,” of the head or principal figure, and 
its counterpart “2,” of the background. Fit the two cut-outs together 


115 






Figure 83. Straight print: background. Figure 84. Straight print: foreground. 


and lay them over the printing frame. Adjust the enlarger so that 
the projected image of the head precisely fits the cut-out. Without 
disturbing “2,” remove cut-out “1” and expose. Fit “1” back into 
place and remove “2.” Adjust negative of background and expose. 

This is a difficult procedure and requires precise workmanship. 
It should be noted, however, that slight discrepancies in the regis¬ 
tration of head and background may usually be cleared up by use 
of Abrasion-Tone. 

An Extreme Instance. 

Figure 87 is included as an extreme instance of combination 
printing, representing the most intricate problem that one is likely 
to undertake. It illustrates the ability of combination printing to 
suggest spaces and properties wholly unavailable to the average 
amateur who wishes to experiment with complicated arrangements. 


116 





Figure 85. Combination print made with use of cut-out. Additional spot printing and 

dodging. 


117 


iPit 





Figure 86. Component negatives for Figure 87. 


The composition was planned by means of a sketch. The position 
of the elements being thereby established, a separation of the groups 
was made in such a way as to accommodate the facilities of the 
studio in space and material. Five negatives (Figure 86) were 
needed to accomplish this. It will be immediately noted from the 
accompanying reproductions that the relative size of the original 
images is considerably altered in the finished work. The necessary 
readjustments of proportion were, of course, made in the process of 
projection. Such portions of the negatives as fall behind other 
objects in the finished composition were opaqued out. Opaquing 
will he noted on the negative of the standing monk, as well as on the 


118 





Figure 87. A complicated job of combination printing. 


119 






lower part of the legs of the man who is pulling the rope. The 
picture was printed in the natural order of receding planes, as 
numbered on the cut. The first negative was given the longest 
exposure, producing a near-silhouette. The three negatives making 
up the middle distance received a normal exposure, while the last 
one, of the large wheel, was allowed barely to record itself. 

Note that, with the occasional use of “opaquing” and with a 
white background throughout, it was possible to make this print 
without employing cut-outs. 


120 








Chapter Eight 


It’s Up to You 


For the last seven chapters 1 have dealt with the problems and 
methods of Projection Control. Now, rather tardily, I come to the 
much more imposing problem of controlling the photographer when 
he starts controlling projection. 

Unhappily, there is no known method of teaching taste, good 
sense and discretion. To such of my readers as lack these valuable 
qualities this book will merely discover new ways of making had 
pictures. There is no escaping this fact—nor the pictures either, for 
I shall doubtless be blamed for them. Babies will be butchered and 
ingenues outraged in the name of Projection Control. 

Relevance to material must always guide the application of 
projection control. The control must be integral to the picture, and 
not a mere flourish or fancy finish. To distort a baby’s head, and to 
locally print its eyes black and bleary, and to convert its mouth into 
an unsightly bruise, would seem an outrage on the most rudimentary 
sense of fitness—yet I have seen the thing done. 

A good negative correctly lighted, correctly exposed, and cor¬ 
rectly developed, is an absolute prerequisite. To attempt projection 
control with a negative of other quality than that defined in Chap- 


121 


ter Three is sheer foolishness and can only result in the loss of time 
and materials. Of course, if you are starting out on a perverse hunt 
for trouble, you can try anything ridiculous—such as combination 
printing with a negative lacking an opaque background, or local 
printing with a dense negative, or a thin negative, or a contrasty 
negative, or a fuzzy negative; but please don’t suggest that projection 
control is in any way responsible for the indubitably dreadful results. 

Projection control must not and cannot be used to cover up 
earlier incompetence or carelessness. Let nothing that was said in 
Chapter One about the lesser importance of “picture taking” be 
construed as sanctioning anything but the most careful procedure at 
all stages of photographic work. Indeed, far from being a means of 
covering up or condoning technical incompetence, projection control 
is itself a delicate and precise technique. The procedures described 
in the foregoing chapters may sound simple, but in the first trials 
they will prove extremely awkward and difficult. Until the requisite 
manual skill is acquired don’t look for any great results. And don’t 
rush before the public, or even your admiring friends, with the early 
fruits of your experiments with projection control. Go about acquir¬ 
ing the new skill in a patient and systematic manner: instead of 
making twenty messes from twenty negatives, make twenty prints 
from one negative, trying in each to correct the recognized mistakes 
in its predecessors. At this stage it is not well to count too much the 
cost or to be niggardly of supplies. Be prepared to spoil, or rather 
to dedicate to educational purposes, plenty of printing paper. 

Only through painful experiment and discovery may one evade 
the trammels of the merely technical aspects of the photographer’s 
craft. Beyond technique lies the field of personal expression through 
purposeful and selective dealing with material. While it is charac¬ 
teristic of the artist to love the purely sensuous qualities of the 
world, the multitudinous textures of surfaces, the strange shapes of 
things—the simple recording of these for their own sake, the mere 
literal representation of them, does not constitute art. Intimate 
studies of a cart wheel, a cabbage, or a compound fracture—though 
they may be exceedingly fascinating and useful in affording valuable 


122 


problems in composition, in exploring the possibilities of form rela¬ 
tionship, and in revealing new fields of pattern and design—must 
ultimately fail of appeal because of their negligible emotional con¬ 
tent. Human emotion has been the basic material of all great art in 
the past, and always will be, though each generation will express it 
through its own forms and patterns. 

Here is an outline of procedure. Its application is up to you. 


123 


















































































































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